Adherence to the standards of prescription chart among medical practitioners in Kurdistan region

Background and objective: Controlling medications safely, effectively and efficiently is essential to the delivery of high-quality care. This study aimed to point up prescription errors such as scientific or brand names, the strength of medications, the age of patients, date of prescriptions, specifying dose, dose interval, dosing frequency and dosage form, through systematic studying a certain number of prescriptions. Methods: This study screened the prescriptions from both of public and private sectors in the governorates of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok. Adherence was assessed on the basis of these prescriptions charts. Excel program was utilized to evaluate the data in this study. Results: The study covered a total 283 prescriptions involving 976 medications in Kurdistan region. Only 19% of medications were mentioned as a scientific name and just 2% of prescriptions were written via computer. Direction for use of the medicines was only mentioned for 3% and the duration of treatment was scripted in 11%.     Conclusion: Majority of medical practitioners in Kurdistan region are not adhering to the international standards of prescriptions.