Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea

Objective: The management of essential medicines in PNG was evaluated using the standard treatment guidelines and essential medicines list as the basis to determine appropriateness of drug prescribing. Study design: A prospective study was carried out at Losuia Health Centre, Alotau Provincial Hospi...

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Main Author: Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Curtin University 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2049
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author Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih
author_facet Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih
author_sort Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Objective: The management of essential medicines in PNG was evaluated using the standard treatment guidelines and essential medicines list as the basis to determine appropriateness of drug prescribing. Study design: A prospective study was carried out at Losuia Health Centre, Alotau Provincial Hospital, and Port Moresby General Hospital. At each setting >300 consecutive prescriptions were evaluated in 2010. In all analyses, a P-value <0.05 was taken to indicate a statistically significant association. The overall prescribing quality was evaluated and additional analyses were performed on antibiotics and antimalarial drugs.Results: A total of 1090 patients enrolled in the study and 2495 medicines were prescribed. The most common was amoxicillin products. The average number of drugs prescribed per patient was 2.3. The most common disease treated was malaria. There were statistically significant differences observed (P< 0.0001) for the level of inappropriate prescribing by prescriber category on drug selection, dosage, and duration. The overall inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics and antimalarial drugs based upon drug selection, dosage, frequency, and duration indicated a significant differences. An analysis of concordance of the STGs with the MDC for ten diseases states showed marked inconsistencies. Conclusion: The level of inappropriate prescribing was as high as 53.8% in the selected locations in PNG which is of great concern with respect to the quality of health care delivery.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-20492017-02-20T06:39:15Z Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih Objective: The management of essential medicines in PNG was evaluated using the standard treatment guidelines and essential medicines list as the basis to determine appropriateness of drug prescribing. Study design: A prospective study was carried out at Losuia Health Centre, Alotau Provincial Hospital, and Port Moresby General Hospital. At each setting >300 consecutive prescriptions were evaluated in 2010. In all analyses, a P-value <0.05 was taken to indicate a statistically significant association. The overall prescribing quality was evaluated and additional analyses were performed on antibiotics and antimalarial drugs.Results: A total of 1090 patients enrolled in the study and 2495 medicines were prescribed. The most common was amoxicillin products. The average number of drugs prescribed per patient was 2.3. The most common disease treated was malaria. There were statistically significant differences observed (P< 0.0001) for the level of inappropriate prescribing by prescriber category on drug selection, dosage, and duration. The overall inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics and antimalarial drugs based upon drug selection, dosage, frequency, and duration indicated a significant differences. An analysis of concordance of the STGs with the MDC for ten diseases states showed marked inconsistencies. Conclusion: The level of inappropriate prescribing was as high as 53.8% in the selected locations in PNG which is of great concern with respect to the quality of health care delivery. 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2049 en Curtin University fulltext
spellingShingle Joshua, Isaac Bokuluwih
Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title_full Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title_fullStr Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title_full_unstemmed Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title_short Public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in Papua New Guinea
title_sort public sector management of essential medicines: an evaluation of the system in papua new guinea
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2049