Why is physician handwriting illegible

Sometimes doctors themselves cannot read their own handwriting, though they sheepishly admit it to be their own. The most common reason for illegible handwriting is the large number of patients to be seen, notes to be written and prescriptions given, in a short time.

It should also be accepted that poor handwriting has no correlation with the medical acumen or expertise of a doctor. A prospective controlled study showed that doctors have handwriting no worse than that of a group of other healthcare personnel and much better than that of healthcare executives. This may reflect the importance attached by doctors to legibility of drug doses, [8] but not names.

There are other studies with interesting results on handwriting of doctors. Many of these have been done in intensive care unit ICU settings. The rate of prescription errors in ICUs was high and it was higher in crowded wards. Illegible orders were the most common errors in prescriptions. The authors recommended that a computerized physician order should be used to decrease prescription errors. Some studies have looked at the magnitude of this issue.

Handwriting was unreadable or difficult to read in Some radical solutions are suggested here, which may appear ludicrous. To ensure this, all candidates who apply for medical courses through common entrance test should also give a sample of written English.

It should be examined by two independent examiners. As in school, there should be marks for handwriting in every professional examination.

Special attention should be given during the final year MBBS examinations, and doctors and medical students who have poor handwriting must be asked to improve their handwriting. Similarly, for postgraduate training and education, handwriting should be given due consideration.

Some part of training and skill building should also focus on handwriting. In most medical training and jobs in the UK and USA, competency in spoken and written English is an essential prerequisite; such requirement can also be made compulsory in India. Educational interventions were found effective in addressing the problem in one study.

Many doctors and hospitals already use e-prescriptions, which go digitally, directly to the pharmacy. Also, technology today allows for oral prescriptions and notes, which can be transcribed, or converted to digital ones with appropriate software for speech to text transcribing.

However, computerization may come with newer problems as noted by a study from Taiwan. References 1. Medical Council of India. Available at www. Sokol DK, Hettige S. Poor handwriting remains a significant problem in medicine. J R Soc Med ; 99 Hester DO.

Do you see what I see? Illegible handwriting can cause patient injuries. J Ky Med Assoc ; 99 Improving the quality of the order-writing process for inpatient orders in a teaching hospital.

Qual Manag Health Care ; 16 BMJ ; Qual Saf Health Care ; 15 Prescribing errors in two ICU wards in a large teaching hospital in Iran. Int J Risk Saf Med ; 27 Errors on a handwritten cardex: Is it time for a change? Nepal Med Coll J ; 13 Prescription writing practices in a rural tertiary care hospital in Western Maharashtra, India. Australas Med J ; 4 Meyer TA. Improving the quality of the order-writing process for inpatient orders and outpatient prescriptions. Physicians failed to write flawless prescriptions when computerized physician order entry system crashed.

Clin Ther ; 37 Crit Care Resusc ; 13 Exact matches only. Search in title. So what gives? For one thing, doctors have to write more than just about any other job. Anything you talk about behind closed doors needs written evidence for your medical history. Curious what your handwriting says about you? This handwriting analysis will tell you. Long days plus tons of writing equals a very tired hand. If doctors could spend an hour with every patient, they might be able to slow down and give their hands a rest.

But the fact is, most physicians are rushing around to the next patient. For instance, one patient might have just 15 minutes to discuss eight medical issues and ask important questions about prescriptions , says Dr. With so many patients to see in a limited time, doctors are more concerned with getting the information down than perfecting their handwriting.

The jargon that doctors deal with also lends itself to bad handwriting. Plus, some terms that are totally clear to medical experts might leave you scratching your head. Brocato, who now mostly types, says doctors are extra careful when it comes to prescriptions, when a tiny misread could have major consequences. Those tiny nuances in sloppy handwriting could be bad news for treatment.

A report found that more than 7, people died a year from medical errors caused by illegible handwriting. Now, doctors are moving toward electronic medical records to cut down on lost-in-translation errors. Some states even legally require doctors to send in prescriptions electronically instead of passing over handwritten slips..