Prescription is a Written Order By the physician to tell the pharmacist what Drugs you want your patient to take.Its important to write a Prescription in ink and the name of prescriber as well as the patient should be mention.There should also be a space for the age and Date Of Birth Of Patient.Because Errors In Prescription can be costly and dangerous,According to Some Quoted Statistics Medication Errors Occur in aproximately 1 in every 5 Doses given in hospitas,7000 people die every year in the U.S due to medication errors.Therefore when writing a prescription you need to include all of the important information.
Important points to keep in Mind When Prescribing a drug
(1)Avoid Unnecessary use of decimal Points e.g Write 5 mg instead of 5.0 mg
Quantities of 1 gram should be written as 1g.
Quantities less than 1 mg should be written in micrograms.100mg not 0.1 mg.
Quantities less than 1 gram should be written in milligrams. 300 mg not 0.3 mg .
(2)Clearly Mention The Quantity or strength to be contained in Tablets,Capsules,Lozenges etc especially mention the strength of liquid preparation e.g 125 mg/5ml .
(3)Don’t Abbreviate Microgram and nanograms in a Prescription.
(4)Generally Milimeter (ml) is expressed as cubic centimeter (c.c) or cm3 in medicine and pharmacy should not be used.
(5)Write The names Of Drugs And Preparations Clearly and Don’t abbreviate as it causes problems.
(6)Direction should preferably be in english without abbreviation.
There are Four Main Parts Of a Standard Prescription i.e Basic Information,Inscription,Subscription,amd Instruction for patient.
(1)Basic Information On Prescription :
Basic information include Identity of patient like Name Of Patient ,Date of birth,Phone Number and Current address because one identity is not enough in most cases even if you use full name of a patient but if two share the same name it would be immposible to know which one the prescription refers to.
Apart from this a prescription must have a date on which it is written .because some prescription must be filled within a certain time period.
The prescription must have the identity of a prescriber i,e a practitioner or a physician name ,contact address of your medical clinics must also be listed on the prescription.
A standard Prescription Must Have Your signature and degree finalize the legal document.Prescription for controlled drugs require a handwritten signature and DEA number.
(2)Inscription:
This part of prescription include Superscription,Medication names,and strengths
Superscription is the “Rx” Symbol Which is already printed on most of the prescription.Write down The Inscription information just after the Rx symbol Like Information about a specific drug you want to prescribe.
Write down the generic and non proprietary name of medication avoid brand names,if you wish to prescribe specifically in brand then use brand name but keep in mind prescribing brand name will make the prescription more expensive for the patient.
Its very important to mention the strength of Drugs because most of the preparations come in more than one strength.
(3)Subscription:
This part is important for pharmacist because the physician want to tell the pharmacist exactly how much of the medicines should be filled including the size of bottle, number of capsule or tablets.
Refilling data is also very important because for some chronic conditions you may allow to refills when the patient will need the same medicines multiple times