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This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a program designed to improve the quality of drug prescription‐writing at a university hospital in France. Improvement actions included feed‐back from yearly audits and the dissemination of recommendations on how best to write the prescriptions. A random sample of 30 stays was selected from among the hospitalizations for the year 1996. From each patient, medical records were searched for the first prescription order of the stay and its quality was assessed according to standards. A total of 872 records were relevant and included 3,289 medications. The results were compared to those obtained for the two previous years. Actions to sensitize prescribers resulted in an insufficient improvement of most indicators of prescription‐writing quality with results remaining well below ideal standards. The hospital staff concerned had a positive opinion of the program which led to an awareness of prescription problems. This assessment showed that the program had a moderate impact on prescribers’ practice and efforts must be continued.

Development and implementation of guidelines constitutes the basis of quality management systems for any organization. The authors have studied the internal documentation produced by professionals on 88 functional units of a university hospital. Reveals the existence of many documents concerning quality of care with an average of 102 available procedures or protocols per unit. However, this documentation is badly organized, making it difficult to consult and to put into practice. The results of this study were provided to other professionals at our hospital in order to make them aware of the necessity of rigorous document management. We have also written and sent recommendations for drawing up procedures and implementing an efficient documentary management system. This effort complements development of the hospital quality assurance plan.