Physicians’ Compliance With Order Entry Forms for Intravenous Pantoprazole in a Tertiary Care Hospital

The widespread inappropriate use of intravenous (IV) pantoprazole, due to its high cost, is a substantial issue. To improve its rational use, an order entry form (OEF) based on the institutional guideline, was implemented. Physicians were required to fill an OEF upon administration of IV pantoprazole. We aimed to evaluate the compliance of physicians as well as the accuracy of filled OEFs six months after the implementation. The study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Tehran. Chart review was performed for all patients with an IV pantoprazole order. IV pantoprazole OEFs received by the hospital pharmacy for these patients were evaluated in terms of quantity and quality (e.g., completeness, accuracy of filled items, etc.). Only for 270 (62%) patients, OEFs were received by the hospital pharmacy. Indications were specified in 199 (73.5%) forms, and their agreement with the forms filled by the researcher was 37.8%. The most frequent indication specified in OEFs was stress ulcer prophylaxis (40.7%). IV pantoprazole administration was rational only in 15.9% of cases. The emergency ward had the highest frequency of orders (57.9%), while having the lowest fill rate (56.7%) among the wards with the highest number of orders. The disagreement between the researcher and the OEFs regarding the need for IV medication was 39.5%. This study demonstrated that the compliance of physicians with the accurate completion of OEFs was suboptimal. It seems that for long-lasting changes in IV pantoprazole utilization patterns, barriers should be determined, and additional methods such as ongoing educational seminars or feedback might be needed along with OEF.