Prescription Drug Use in Primary Health Care Posts and Its Improvement Scheme
Article information
Abstract
Purpose
The prescription drug list for primary treatment by community health practitioners has been maintained for 30 years without any modification. Thus, this study will suggest an improvement scheme of prescription drug list for primary health care posts through an analysis of drug use in those posts.
Methods
A questionnaire survey was implemented with community health practitioners from April to June in 2012. A total of 1,249 copies were analyzed. As for the databases of drug use in the integrated information, a total of 154,229 diagnoses selected in the method of stratified cluster sampling from 39 primary health care posts'data were analyzed. We consulted some experts about the prescription medication list, and referred to the medication information on-line home page for up-to-date drug information.
Results
This study ultimately suggests 77 prescription drug items for primary health care posts by eliminating 35 items and replacing 1 item from the original list, and adding 4 items to it.
Conclusion
This study will provide basic data for revising the prescription drug list in primary health care posts by periodically reflecting adverse effects in the existing drugs, demographic and environmental changes, and development of new drugs.
Notes
The study was supported by a grant from 2012 National Health Promotion Fund of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Policy 12-01).