DHSK to nominate nodal officer, frame panel for prescription audit

Days after the administration called for streamlining of drugs by doctors, the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK) has directed officials to constitute a Prescription Audit Committee and nominate nodal officers.
As per the guidelines set by the National Health Mission, a prescription audit is a part of the holistic clinical audit and is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through a systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change.

Further as per the guideline, Prescription audit is a facility level review exercise, conducted periodically, for reviewing the facility’s prescriptions. It helps in assessing the extent of OPD patient-related information as recorded on the prescriptions, prescribing habits of clinicians, appropriateness of medicine usage and its availability, drug dispensing practices and workload of the dispensary.
A circular in this regard has been issued by Dr M A Rather, Director of Health Services Kashmir.

“It is enjoined upon all the Chief Medical Officers & Medical Superintendents of Kashmir Division to nominate one “Nodal Officer” for a District Hospital & for each Sub-District Hospital of their respective districts, who shall collect photo copies of at least 1% (one percentage) of prescriptions on random daily basis written by the Government doctors in OPDs”, the circular reads.

Besides, the Chief Medical Officer concerned shall also constitute a District level “Prescription Audit Committee” (PAC), comprising of doctors on administrative posts, excluding the consultants.

As per the circular, hese prescriptions collected by the Nodal Officer shall be scrutinized by the Prescription Audit Committee, whether the Prescriptions are legibly written in the Capital letters with name of the doctor, his/her signature & registration Number.

Also the district PAC will check if the generic drugs are prescribed and preference is given to the drugs… are available free in hospital supplies, unnecessary diagnostic test/producers and patients are referred to private clinics/specialists without requirement and drugs are prescribed in contravention to the provisions of Drugs & Cosmetic Act & Regularization’s.

Further, as per the circular the Prescription Audit Committee(s) shall prepare and submit fortnightly reports to this Directorate. Also, the Divisional level Prescription Audit Committee, which is being constituted, shall prepare a comprehensive monthly rep with their recommendations, highlighting actionable points be submitted to the Administrative Department.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta earlier this week chaired a meeting to review the functioning of the Health & Medical Education Department and progress achieved under the CAPEX Budget during this financial year.

To streamline prescriptions of drugs by doctors, the Chief Secretary during the meeting directed a prescription audit and asked the Department to ensure that all doctors produce their seal and signature on the prescription card, in case the prescribed drugs include non-generic medicines to be procured from the market.