Rational prescribing increases the quality of health care and patient outcomes. In this study, the quality of drug prescription in specialist physicians in Isfahan province of Iran was assessed for evaluating the rational use of drugs and improving the therapeutic outcomes. This retrospective survey was conducted on a total of 7999530 prescriptions from all general and specialist physicians. The most frequently prescribed drugs and World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators were evaluated in prescriptions of all medical specialties. Assessment of prescribing indicators revealed poor-quality prescribing performance by general practitioners including high number of medicines prescribed per clients, wide range of prescribed medicines in each prescription, over-prescribing of antibiotics, corticosteroids and injectable drugs. There were also wide differences in the pattern of drug prescribing depending on the medical specialties. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter by specialists was less than generalists except for the cardiologists. General practitioners, otorhinolaryngologists and general surgeons prescribed more antibiotics. Orthopedic surgeons and general practitioners were the top prescribers of injectable and corticosteroid drugs. The most frequently prescribed medicine groups varied according to the prescribers' medical specialty. Analgesics and antipyretics were the most prescribed preparations in general medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, general surgery and cardiology. Because of the wide variability in the pattern of drug prescribing depending on the medical specialties, specific performance indicators should be developed for each specific medical specialty for better assessing of prescribing quality in specialist physicians.
Keywords: Drug prescription; Drug utilization; Health care; Prescribing practice; Quality indicators.