Quality of prescription writing in Brazilian primary health care

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the quality of prescription writing in the context of public primary health care. Background: Prescription errors are one of the leading patient safety problems in primary care and can be caused by errors in therapeutic decisions or in the quality of prescription writing. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study conducted in a municipality in Northeastern Brazil. The assessment instrument (including 13 indicators and one composite indicator) was applied to a representative sample of drug prescriptions from the 24 Family Health Teams providing Primary Health Care in the municipality, dispensed in January 2021. Estimates of compliance and their 95% confidence intervals and graphical analysis of frequencies are assessed globally and stratified by dispensing units and prescribers. Findings: The average composite prescription writing quality on a 0-100 scale was 60.2 (95% CI 57.8–62.6). No quality criteria had 100% compliance. The highest compliance rates were found for ‘frequency of administration’ (98.9%) and ‘identification of the prescriber’ (98.9%). On the other hand, ‘recorded information on allergy’ (0.0%), ‘patient’s date of birth’ (1.7%), ‘nonpharmacological recommendations’ (1.7%), and ‘guidance on the use of the drug’ (25%) were the indicators with lower compliance, contributing to 69% of the noncompliances found. The type and frequency of the errors in the quality of prescription writing uncovered in this study confirm the continuing need to tackle this problem to improve patient safety. The results identify priority aspects for interventions and further studies on the quality of prescription writing in the context of Primary Health Care in Brazil.

Development and Evaluation of a Software Designed by a Nursing and Technology Team to Assess the Health Status of Adults over 65 Years of Age

“…In the community directive, clear competencies may be observed, which support the clinical decision-making of nurses and not solely in the field of hospitalization but also in primary health care. 5 It seems obvious that making decisions about care and prescribe temporally the activities necessary to guarantee quality of care is a component that strengthens its own portfolio of services, from which related lines of research emerge that allow identifying the ideal temporality required for the application of care..…”