General Directorate for Quality Development, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
East Mediterr Health J. 2011 Feb;17(2):149-55.
Physicians' prescribing behaviour is closely linked with patient safety and this area is poorly researched in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this study was to analyse physicians' prescribing patterns and the adequacy of noted information in the primary health care sector in Riyadh city. All medication prescriptions from 5 public (n = 1182) and 5 private (n = 1200) health centres were collected by simple random sampling during 1 working day. Antibiotics were the most commonly prescribed drugs in both sectors. The mean number of drugs per prescription was 2.08 and 2.36 in the public and private sectors respectively. Information and instructions noted on prescriptions varied considerably between private and public health centres. Similarly the medication prescribing pattern differed across the 2 health settings. Primary care physicians in Saudi Arabia need continuing training to improve their prescribing practices.
医生的处方行为与患者安全密切相关，而在沙特阿拉伯，这方面的研究还很不完善。本研究的目的是分析利雅得市初级保健部门医生的处方模式和记录信息的充分性。在一个工作日内，通过简单随机抽样，从 5 家公立（n=1182）和 5 家私立（n=1200）医疗中心收集所有药物处方。抗生素是两个部门最常开的药物。公立和私立部门每张处方的平均用药数分别为 2.08 和 2.36。私立和公立医院在处方上记录的信息和说明差别很大。同样，这两种医疗环境的药物处方模式也存在差异。沙特阿拉伯的初级保健医生需要持续培训以改善他们的处方习惯。
