The present study was undertaken to study the prescribing behavior of clinicians in treating identified bacterial infection, cost of treatment, prescription error and patient counseling to improve the use of medicine from the patient view point. 132 patients with bacterial skin infections were selected from both out patients and inpatients at the time of ward round on daily basis, done in the department of Dermatology at RMMC & Hospital Annamalainagar, T.N, India and subjected for analysis according to the WHO/DSPRUD Indicators. It was observed that maximum number of cases (29.97) were in male patients between the age group of 20-39 years. Secondary infection was found most common (56.82%) and oral antibiotics were highly prescribed (66.18%) than topical antibiotic (23.04%). Most commonly used topical antibiotic was mupirocin (11.52%) while highly prescribed oral antibiotic was ampicillin (26.70%) and prescribing of parenteral preparation was rare. It was found that the total number of patients completely cured were 96 (11.36%). Among Prescription error occurred during practice it was observed that medication related error was more (43.28%) than duration related error (29.85%). During the follow up period it was found that counseling was effective in imparting the knowledge of time of medication (80%) and the importance of duration of treatment (90%). The WHO is advocating the promotion of rational use of drug by promoting the implementation of standard treatment guideline and essential drugs. The development and implementation of treatment guideline is a multidisciplinary activity of the health care team in which Pharmacist can play an active role.
Key words: Rational drug use, antibiotic, medication error, skin infection,