Prescribing Practices of Medications in the Outpatient Dermatology Department of a Public Hospital

Aim: This study aims to describe the prescribing pattern of medications by dermatology outpatient department in a public hospital in Alkharj.

Methodology: This is a retrospective study that included collecting data from outpatient electronic prescriptions in a public hospital in Alkharj. All of the outpatients who received prescriptions written by the dermatology department between 1st of January till 30th of June 2018 were included in the study. The data were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Results: A total of 328 patients received outpatient prescriptions written by dermatology department. Most of them were females (62.80%) and aged less than 40 years (67.38%). The most prescribed drug in the present study was Hydrocortisone (14.33%) followed by White Soft Paraffin (8.84), Fusidic acid (8.54%) and Cetirizine (8.23%). Most of the medications were prescribed as ointment (28.66%) followed by creams (28.04%).

Conclusion: Females were found to be more predominant with dermatological diseases when compared to males. The most commonly prescribed drugs were hydrocortisone, white soft paraffin, fusidic acid and cetirizine. It is important to evaluate prescribing pattern of the drugs periodically to improve the quality of prescriptions.