Objectives: To analyze the prescriptions of out-patients for rational prescribing and dispensing and to evaluate the patient’s knowledge regarding use of drugs, using INRUD indicators.

Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted at the Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal during the time period from June 10th to August 19th 2004.

Results: Totally 247 prescriptions were randomly selected for analysis, wherein 720 drugs were prescribed. Only 15% of drugs were prescribed by generic name, 21.67% of the total drugs consisted of fixed-dose combinations, only 40% of drugs were from the Essential drug list of Nepal and 29.44% (n=212) were from the WHO Essential drug list. It was found that more than half (54.17 %) of the drugs were from Nepalese National Formulary and 35.69% were from WHO model formulary. Dermatological products were most commonly prescribed followed by drugs acting on central nervous system, antimicrobials and drugs acting on cardiovascular system. Among the drugs dispensed, 79.16% were oral followed by topical (18.19%) and parenteral forms (2.98%). Diagnosis was mentioned only in 3.23% (n=8) of the prescriptions and the average cost per prescription was found to be 241.11 Nepalese rupees (US$ 3.26). It was found out that pharmacist labelled only 0.4% of the medication envelopes with the name of the patient. However, 82.6% of the medication envelopes were labelled with name of the drug and 87.0 % with drug strength. Only 53.8% (n=133) of the patient knew both the duration of the therapy and administration time of drugs.

Conclusion: There is a need for educational intervention for prescribers and both managerial and educational intervention for the hospital pharmacists to improve prescribing and dispensing.