WHO/INRUD drug prescribing indicators at primary health care centres in Eastern province, Saudi Arabia.

Appropriate use of drugs is an essential element in achieving quality of health and medical care for patients and the community as a whole. This study aimed to measure the drug prescribing performance of primary health care centres in Eastern province, Saudi Arabia, using the WHO/International Network of Rational Use of Drugs core drug prescribing indicators. In a retrospective cohort study 10 health centres were selected using systematic random sampling. A total of 1000 prescribing encounters were investigated from January to December 2010. Mean values were: number of drugs per encounter 2.4 (optimal < or = 3), drugs prescribed by generic name 61.2% (optimal 100%), encounters with antibiotic prescribed 32.2% (optimal < or = 30%), encounters with injection prescribed 2% (optimal < or = 10%) and drugs prescribed from the national essential drugs list or facility formulary 99.2% (optimal 100%). An overall index of rational drug prescribing was calculated and applied to rank the health centres for benchmarking.