EVALUATION OF UTILIZATION OF EMERGENCY MEDICATION IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN SOUTH INDIA

Abstract

The objective of the research is to study the prescribing trends, to calculate the consumption of emergency drugs and to evaluate the cost of therapy in the Emergency Department. The emergency drugs used were identified and their amount of consumption was collected from the computer database. Out of 11,273 patients, 300 patients who had received emergency drugs were selected. The average number of drugs per prescription was 6.2 ± 2.2. Furosemide (49.6%) was the most frequently used emergency drugs followed by Heparin (40%) and Nor-adrenaline (30.3%). The most common indication was acute coronary syndrome. Among the non-emergency drugs, ondensetron (86.6%) and pantoprazole (84.2%) were given very commonly. The average cost of the treatment per patient was INR 4251 ± 1641. This is to highlight the importance of strategies and to optimize medication use of the Emergency Department.