Impact of essential medicine system on rational drug use in community health care centers of Zhejiang province

ObjectiveTo explore the impact on rational drug use of community health care centers with the implementation of essential medicine system in Zhejiang Province.Methods3 counties and 9 community health care centers were randomly selected and 1080 prescriptions were tested.Before and after the implementation of essential medicine system,the differences of the indicators as the mean of medicine varieties per prescription,the average amount per prescription,the proportion of the prescription of antibiotics,hormones and injection were compared with statistical methods.Results The differences of the mean of medicine varieties per prescription,the average amount per prescription were statistically significant,while the differences of the prescription proportion of antibiotics,hormones and injection were not statistically significant.Conclusion The essential medicine system can play the role of promoting the rational use of drugs,but its role is limited.It's necessary to change the doctors and patients' attitudes and enhance the training on medical personnel about the rational use of drugs.