Comparison of Writing Patterns of Prescription in Public and Private Sector Hospitals in Multan

Objective: To compare and evaluate handwritten prescriptions from the public and private sector hospitals/clinics and to determine whether there is any significant difference between the two. Study Design: Hospital based cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Nishtar Medical University for a period of 3 months post-approval (June 2022-August 2022) Materials and Methods: Total 400 prescriptions were part of this study with 200 from private and 200 public hospital. They were collected and assessed under the World Health Organisation’s Guide to Good Prescribing. The prescriptions from one sector were then compared against those from the other sector to identify any significant differences. Results: All prescriptions lacked at least some of the criteria of a good prescription with prescriptions from the private sector being better than those from the public sector. Prescriptions from both sectors were almost completely deficient as regards to the use of generic drug names. There was negligible difference between both sectors in terms of legibility of written prescriptions (p=0.057). While name of patient, his/her age, address, vitals, drug strength, dosage, and total quantity of drug prescribed are were compared, there were significant differences of 0.032, 0.021, 0.039, 0.048, 0.041, 0.033, and 0.039 respectively. Conclusion: The private sector executes better than the public sector in prescription writing, but both sectors so far have fall short of the standards set by the World Health Organisation