The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions in reducing prescribing errors. The study was carried out at Kuala Kangsar Hospital with 136 beds. A prospective study reviewing newly written prescriptions between May 1, 2009 and June 30, 2009 was conducted after a 4-month period of educational interventions which included providing feedback to the doctors, a...

PURPOSE There is limited information on pediatric prescribing in Sierra Leone. This study evaluated prescribing patterns for under-five patients at Ola During Children's Hospital (ODCH) and assessed the extent of rational prescribing. METHODS A descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study of 294 prescriptions, selected by systematic random sampling was conducted at the outpatient departm...

The introduction of an antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program is associated with a change in antimicrobial prescribing behavior. A proposed mechanism for this change is by impacting the prescribing etiquette described in qualitative studies. This study sought to detect a change in prescribing attitudes 12 months after the introduction of AMS and gauge utility of various AMS interventions. Surv...

BACKGROUND Prescribing errors are a major source of morbidity and mortality and represent a significant patient safety concern. Evidence suggests that trainee doctors are responsible for most prescribing errors. Understanding the factors that influence prescribing behavior may lead to effective interventions to reduce errors. Existing investigations of prescribing errors have been based on Huma...

BACKGROUND Junior doctors are at high risk of involvement in medication errors. Educational interventions to enhance human factors and specifically nontechnical skills in health care are increasingly reported, but there is no work in the context of prescribing improvement to guide such education. We set out to determine the elements that influence prescribing from a human factors perspective by...

OBJECTIVES Primary care high-risk prescribing causes significant harm, but it is unclear if it is largely driven by individuals (a 'bad apple' problem) or by practices having higher or lower risk prescribing cultures (a 'spoiled barrel' problem). The study aimed to examine the extent of variation in high-risk prescribing between individual prescribers and between the practices they work in. D...

Inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing contributes to the global spread of antimicrobial resistance. The pending weekend with changed availability of general practitioners (GP) and increased patient concern may increase the intention to prescribe antimicrobials. The aim of this study is to analyse variation in antimicrobial prescribing between weekdays and weekend in Irish general practice. Al...

BACKGROUND Levels of antidepressant prescribing have dramatically increased in Western countries in the last two decades. AIM To explore GPs' views about, and explanations for, the increase in antidepressant prescribing in Scotland between 1995 and 2004. DESIGN Qualitative, interview study. SETTING General practices, Scotland. PARTICIPANTS GPs in 30 practices (n = 63) purposively select...

High antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial resistance in patients attending primary care have been reported in South America. Very few interventions targeting general practitioners (GPs) to decrease inappropriate antibiotic prescribing have been investigated in this region. This study assessed the effectiveness of online feedback on reducing antibiotic prescribing in patients with suspected ...

Background Substantial variation in antibiotic prescribing rates between general practices persists, but remains unexplained at national level. Aim To establish the degree of variation in antibiotic prescribing between practices in England and identify the characteristics of practices that prescribe higher volumes of antibiotics. Design of study Cross-sectional study. Setting 8057 general pract...