Abstract:

Background: Prescription errors refer to prescribing that fail to satisfy a condition to a good standard of treatment, this may manifest in five different ways include under-prescribing, over-prescribing, incorrect prescribing, extravagant prescribing and multiple prescribing. In 2014 WHO reported that more than 50% of all medicines worldwide are incorrectly prescribed or sold and 50% of patients fail to use them correctly.

Methodology: A retrospective Cross Sectional Hospital based study was conducted at Bukombe district hospital in Geita region. From January 2013 to December 2019. The study was included 400 patient of all ages and were selected by consecutive sampling method the data was filled and analyzed by STATA version 13 and the recorded based on the checklist.

Results and Discussion: A total of 400 prescriptions, prescribed for treatment of malaria was collected at Bukombe district hospital and percentage of 82% of all prescription errors related to both prescribers, patients and drugs information was related at the hospital. Among all prescription errors the prescription related to patient’s information like weight, Age, Sex and Residence of the patient was the common errors reviewed at the hospital.

Conclusion: The prescription errors due to patient’s information like weight, Sex, Age and residence of the patients were not indicated on the prescription was common revealed at Bukombe hospital. The percentage of prescription errors to both prescription errors related to prescribers, patients and drugs information was 82% revealed at the hospital. There is significant association between the prevalence of errors with the qualification in the study with a (p-value<0.001). This study emphasizes the role of pharmacist and prevent the society from drug resistance, as pharmacist is the person who can review the prescription order before dispensing the medicine and it will be beneficial to reduce the prescription errors.