Appropriateness of written dosing instructions provided with dispensed medicines by Pharmacists - A hospital and community experience

Samaranayake N R, Manchanayake M G C A and Bandara G R W S K

Appropriateness of written dosing instructions provided with dispensed medicines by Pharmacists - A hospital and community experience

Samaranayake N R, Manchanayake M G C A and Bandara G R W S K

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

: J Pharm Drug Deliv Res

Abstract

Poor communication of medicines information to patients may result in medication errors. We assessed the completeness, readability and overall knowledge of dosing instructions provided by pharmacists on dispensing labels to patients. The study settings were outpatient pharmacies of a selected teaching hospital, and a selected community pharmacy. Dosing instructions on labels were assessed against a checklist to determine completeness. Patients were asked to read dosing instructions to assess readability. Patient knowledge on given dosing instructions was determined through a set of predetermined questions. Completeness, readability and knowledge were scored out of 10 for each dispensing label. A total of 1200 and 1372 dispensing labels were assessed in the hospital and community settings respectively. Dispensing labels included refill (75%) and new (25%) prescriptions. The median score out of 10, for completeness, readability and patient knowledge of dosing instructions were 7.5, 8.5 and 7.5 respectively for hospital, and 7.5, 6.7 and 7.5 respectively for community settings. Only few dispensing labels specified route of administration (hospital, 0.5%; community, 0.8%) and duration of treatment (hospital, 0.25%; community, 0.65%). Name (hospital, 48%; community, 27.3%) and strength (hospital, 40.2%; community, 36.6%) of medicines on dispensing labels were frequently misread. The mean scores for readability (P<0.001) and knowledge of dosing instructions (P<0.001) significantly differed among different education levels, in both settings. Some important dosing instructions were missing in dispensing labels. Readability and knowledge of dosing instructions differed by education level. Hence pharmacists must develop a standard procedure to provide complete, clear and simple dosing instructions to patients.