Objective: To find out the quality of extended treatments as recorded on the long-treatment medical record cards of the users of Chantrea Health Centre (Pamplona).
Design: This was a descriptive crossover study. SITE. An urban Primary Care centre.
Patients or others participants: The record cards filled in by registered nurses and physicians during one week in May 1990 were chosen. No prior notice was given to the rest of the team. Overall, 370 record cards were studied.
Main measurements and results: The average of drugs per person is 2.93 + 1.81, with significant differences for those over 65 years old (p less than 0.01). Regarding the quality indicators used: 78% of the medicines are included in the Primary Care Guide; 79.5% of those studied only took one drug; drugs were administered orally in 83% of cases; occasional concomitant medication was detected on 22.7% of the record cards and potential interactions existed on 35% of the cards.
Conclusions: A therapeutic level, which was acceptable in terms of the indicators used, was supposed. For the Primary Care team to reflect jointly on prescriptions was thought to be important. The question was posed of a training programme for all doctors working in the area.