Analysis of completion of medical prescriptions on paper

Within the pharmaceutical policies, the State has been interested in the medical prescription as a legal document of prescription and dispensing medicines and health products contributing to the improvement in patient safety. 

To measure the degree of compliance of the prescriptions that arrive at the community pharmacy, a cross-sectional observational study was conducted for two months of 2019 to review all the prescriptions on paper presented for dispensing in five pharmacies. Within this period, a total of 33463 prescriptions were received 30085 (89.90%) were electronic and 3378 (10.10%) were on paper. Of these, 841 (25%) came from the public health system, 931 (27%) from MUFACE, 362 (11%) from ISFAS, 28 (1%) from MUGEJU, 201 (6%) other organizations and 1015 (30%) from private healthcare. When the number and percentage of paper prescriptions that could be legally dispensed was analysed, it was observed that only 130 (65%) prescriptions of other organizations, 30 (4%) of the public health system and 34 (3%) of private healthcare were correctly completed. Therefore, only 194 of the 3,378 paper prescriptions (6%) received during two months in the five community pharmacies could be dispensed according to current law.

When the prescriptions are not correctly filled, with the mandatory basic data, indispensable for the validity of the medical prescription, the patient’s safety can be compromised and the prescribing health professionals and those who dispense the medications are exposed to sanctions.