Investigating the quality of psychotropic drug prescriptions at Accra Psychiatric Hospital

Abstract

Quality of prescribing is an important aspect of clinical practice. In a study of the effect of electronic prescriptions on prescription quality in the UK, Donyai et al (2008) found errors in 3.8% of their sample before the introduction of electronic prescription. In a psychiatric setting in Leeds in the UK, Nirodi & Mitchell (2002) found that 16.1% of prescriptions written for a cohort of elderly patients were illegible, and a third lacked information on dose, frequency or indication of use of medications. They found that only 18% were legible and free of all errors.