Drug policy in Slovakia and its reflection in prescriptions. 1. Prescriptions for mass-produced drugs according to physician specialty
Springer, V.; Kisska, I.; Hrcková, M.
Ceska a Slovenska Farmacie Casopis Ceske Farmaceuticke Spolecnosti a Slovenske Farmaceuticke Spolecnosti 51(3): 129-133
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 1210-7816 PMID: 12058353 Document Number: 544272
The present paper aims at pharmacoeconomic analysis of prescriptions of physicians according to their specialization. The database was based on medical prescriptions from four pharmacies. Altogether 133,856 prescriptions were evaluated in two periods (the years 1999 and 2000) with different legislative regulations of the conditions for prescription of drugs from the funds of health insurance (fully covered drugs, drugs with participation of the policy holder, prescription and indication limitation). The results show that 1.45 kinds of drugs and 2.28 packages of mass-produced drugs were prescribed per 1 prescription. The average value of drugs per one prescription was 370.28 Slovak crowns. General practitioners prescribed 50.5% of prescriptions, the value of prescribed drugs being 42.0%. As to specialization, the highest share of prescriptions (36.5%) was written by pediatricians, the highest value of drugs as expressed per 1 prescription was prescribed by diabetologists (1340.20 Slovak crowns). When comparing the indices under study in two periods, in the second one (the year 2000) the financially expressed consumption of drugs continued to show an increasing trend (in the case of the value of 1 prescription by 10.6%).