The Impact of Clinical Pharmacist Interventions on Drug and Antibiotic Prescribing in a Teaching Hospital in Cairo

Background: The present study was undertaken to investigate the patterns of drug and antibiotics prescribing in a teaching hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Aim: to determine the impact of interventions on such trends in an attempt to rationalize drug use. Method: 1200 prescriptions and patients' records covering the months of January to December, 2011. Prescribing patterns were analyzed using WHO guidelines with regard to prescribing, patient care and health facility indicators. The same parame-ters were again assessed after distributing antibiotic guidelines and holding workshops activities directed towards rational drug use. Results: The number of hospital visits resulting in a prescription was significantly reduced from 94% to 86% (P-value <0.05) and in both cases none of the en-counters contained a generic drug. The average number of drugs per encounter was 2.7 and did not decrease significantly after intervention. A significant reduction was achieved in the number of prescriptions with antibiotics whereas reduction in encounters with injectable drugs was not statis-tically significant. Penicillins was the most commonly prescribed class of antibiotics and amoxicillin was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic. A significant reduction was observed in both en-counters with penicillin and the total of those with antibiotics. Analysis of prescriptions with anti-biotics revealed that penicillins, cephalosporins and erythromycin comprised 94% and 97% of all antibiotics prescribed before and after interventions respectively. Conclusion: The present results clearly indicated that interventions including distribution of antibiotic guidelines and running workshops and seminars on rational drug use to prescribers can lead to significant improvement in prescribing behavior.