A Study on Prescription Audit of OPD Patients of a Tertiary Care Hospital of North India

Background: Rational prescribing is an essential component of quality healthcare and patient safety. This study aimed to evaluate prescribing practices at SKIMS Hospital in Kashmir by analyzing outpatient prescriptions using World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June to August 2025, involving 8415 outpatient prescriptions. Parameters such as prescription completeness, prescriber identifiers, generic prescribing, polypharmacy, legibility, and drug utilization patterns were assessed. Descriptive statistics were applied and results were compared against WHO standards. Results: Documentation of patient identifiers was excellent (99%), and completeness of prescriptions reached 98.7%. However, allergy documentation (15%), prescriber identifiers (60%), and legibility (85%) were suboptimal. Generic prescribing was very low (