IJERPH, Vol. 19, Pages 10156: The Impact of International Nonproprietary Names Integration on Prescribing Reimbursement Medicines for Arterial Hypertension and Analysis of Medication Errors in Latvia

IJERPH, Vol. 19, Pages 10156: The Impact of International Nonproprietary Names Integration on Prescribing Reimbursement Medicines for Arterial Hypertension and Analysis of Medication Errors in Latvia International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610156 Authors: Anna Gavrilova Maksims Zolovs Gustavs Latkovskis Inga Urtāne The use of international nonproprietary names (INNs) has been mandatory for prescriptions of state-reimbursed drugs in Latvia since 1 April 2020. In a retrospective analysis, we aimed to examine the impact of the new regulation on changes in the prescribing and dispensing practice of antihypertensive agents with an example of bisoprolol or/and perindopril and their combinations. All state-reimbursed bisoprolol and/or perindopril prescriptions for arterial hypertension were evaluated in two time periods: 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 and 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The proportion of INN prescriptions increased from 2.1% to 92.3% (p < 0.001, φ = 0.903). The rate of fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) increased from 60.8% to 66.5% (p < 0.001, φ = 0.059). The rate of medication errors was 0.6%. The most common (80.6%) error was that the dispensed medicine dose was larger or smaller than indicated on the prescription. In addition, prescribing an FDC medicine increased the chance of making an error by 2.5 times on average. Regulatory changes dramatically affected th...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research