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Why most Doctor’s handwriting is hardly readable?

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Why most Doctor’s handwriting is hardly readable?

It is a common belief that doctor’s handwriting is not readable.

A popular joke about doctors is that their handwriting can only be understood by their spouse or a chemist. But at times, even chemists find it difficult to decipher medicines listed on a prescription, thanks to hard-to-read handwriting.


Possible reasons:



  1. Doctors deliberately make their writing difficult to read so that patients can't read the prescription (or their notes) and get silly ideas into their heads about understanding their own case.
  2. During their schooling they have to write class notes so fast that they tend to develop personal shorthand that can't be read by anyone but themselves.
  3. Sometimes, doctors are not sure of the spelling and so just write it in a messy way.
  4. The reason could be any of these - tremendous work pressure at OPDs, especially in government hospitals, exhaustive paperwork or plain carelessness.

Can you add some more possible reasons to it?


How to read a Doctor’s prescription; this link may help you!!

How to Read a Doctor's Prescription: 6 Steps (with Pictures)


I really wonder how is Renukaji's handwriting!!!
 
Why most Doctor’s handwriting is hardly readable?

It is a common belief that doctor’s handwriting is not readable.

A popular joke about doctors is that their handwriting can only be understood by their spouse or a chemist. But at times, even chemists find it difficult to decipher medicines listed on a prescription, thanks to hard-to-read handwriting.


Possible reasons:



  1. Doctors deliberately make their writing difficult to read so that patients can't read the prescription (or their notes) and get silly ideas into their heads about understanding their own case.
  2. During their schooling they have to write class notes so fast that they tend to develop personal shorthand that can't be read by anyone but themselves.
  3. Sometimes, doctors are not sure of the spelling and so just write it in a messy way.
  4. The reason could be any of these - tremendous work pressure at OPDs, especially in government hospitals, exhaustive paperwork or plain carelessness.

Can you add some more possible reasons to it?


How to read a Doctor’s prescription; this link may help you!!

How to Read a Doctor's Prescription: 6 Steps (with Pictures)


I really wonder how is Renukaji's handwriting!!!

Dear PJ sir,

I have beautiful handwriting.......it is the male doctors that mostly do not have that great handwriting.

Anyway these days who writes?

We print everything for patient..which minimizes error.

At some major government hospitals here each doctor has a personal lap top to type in all the cases they see.

So hardly anyone writes these days.

Some clinics here..there are no cards for patients..patients are identified with micro chips in the National ID card and the files are saved in the computer of the doctor and the doctor just keys in the findings.

So as I said..nowadays we hardly write.
 
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In many hospitals I have visited the prescriptions are still written by hand both for out patients and in patients. For outpatients, the consultant writes the tests and medicines in 'his or hers' handwriting; for inpatients, the doc tells the duty nurse. she prepares a medicine request, and the patient's help is expected to buy the medicine etc from the hospital's shop. Of course, printed receipts are given.
 
Dear PJ sir,

I have beautiful handwriting.......it is the male doctors that mostly do not have that great handwriting.

Anyway these days who writes?

We print everything for patient..which minimizes error.

At some major government hospitals here each doctor has a personal lap top to type in all the cases they see.

So hardly anyone writes these days.

Some clinics here..there are no cards for patients..patients are identified with micro chips in the National ID card and the files are saved in the computer of the doctor and the doctor just keys in the findings.

So as I said..nowadays we hardly write.

With an educated audience (patients) who ask the details of all the medication the Doctors are no more in ivory towers..They are being constantly evaluated by their patients..The hand writing has improved a lot in the last 2 decades compared to what it was earlier...Now every Doctor has to sweat it out to earn the money what with intense competition in the profession

With Internet, Doctors are being constantly judged by their patients...Before going to a particular Doctor don't we now check the credentials in the Net?
 
With an educated audience (patients) who ask the details of all the medication the Doctors are no more in ivory towers..They are being constantly evaluated by their patients..The hand writing has improved a lot in the last 2 decades compared to what it was earlier...Now every Doctor has to sweat it out to earn the money what with intense competition in the profession

With Internet, Doctors are being constantly judged by their patients...Before going to a particular Doctor don't we now check the credentials in the Net?

I sometimes get patients who try to peep into my records to see what I am writing in their cards.

So when I notice that I switch writing my notes in Sanskrit so that they might not have much idea what I am writing!

It does not state anyway that case notes need be written in English for doctors own personal records.
 
I sometimes get patients who try to peep into my records to see what I am writing in their cards.

So when I notice that I switch writing my notes in Sanskrit so that they might not have much idea what I am writing!

It does not state anyway that case notes need be written in English for doctors own personal records.

renukaji

writing in Sanskrit is very difficult to read even by educated patients!!

and even by Pharmacy man!!

BadHandWriting001.jpg


In India, most Doctors sitting in a small clinic, still writes on a small Prescription pad only which can only be read by the Pharmacy man where the patient is directed to go and purchase the medicines!!

Many Medical representatives visit a doctor and explain about their products, naturally the Doctor can not be expected to remember the correct spelling of each of these medicines; so they just scribble the name of the medicine on the prescription pad, and when the patient goes to that particular Pharmacy, the pharmacy man understands the medicine as it is newly arrived, he gives that to patient.

There are chances of giving a wrong medicine to a patient also.

Image source: Google
 
renukaji

writing in Sanskrit is very difficult to read even by educated patients!!

and even by Pharmacy man!!

BadHandWriting001.jpg


In India, most Doctors sitting in a small clinic, still writes on a small Prescription pad only which can only be read by the Pharmacy man where the patient is directed to go and purchase the medicines!!

Many Medical representatives visit a doctor and explain about their products, naturally the Doctor can not be expected to remember the correct spelling of each of these medicines; so they just scribble the name of the medicine on the prescription pad, and when the patient goes to that particular Pharmacy, the pharmacy man understands the medicine as it is newly arrived, he gives that to patient.

There are chances of giving a wrong medicine to a patient also.

Image source: Google


Dear PJ sir,

Here we do not send patient to pharmacy cos a doctor here has dispensing rights and we have our own pharmacy in our clinic.

I have my own pharmacy in my clinic..so I write name of medications in the card of patient.

No one else reads the what I write besides me.

We do not even need to write out a prescription on a piece of paper.

There is no pharmacist involved here cos we doctors here run our own pharmacy..this scenario is not seen in India.
The pharmacy is just adjacent to the doctor's room and connected with door.

Out here each doctor has a MIMS Malaysia Booklet with all latest drugs and their names..MIMS Malaysia is also online..so there is no question of getting the name of the drug wrong.

Search Drug Information, Interactions, Images, Dosage & Side Effects | MIMS.com Malaysia


I am surprised that some feel that a doctor would not be able to remember the spelling of all drugs..ask any doctor and he can tell you the spelling of any drug he/she uses easily.

Its like how we remember mantras..when we use the drugs daily the spelling just sticks in our head...what is so difficult about that?
 
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renukaji

it is not like what is practiced in Malaysia or US/UK, it is different in India always.

In US, the Doctor sends the prescription to Walgreens Shop which is nearest to the patient's home; the patient goes there and collects the medicine after paying the Bill amount.

In India, Doctors always attend a bunch of Medical representatives at a time, and each one explains every thing about their new medicine (very fast) and the Doctor just listens and sometime asks some clarifications; it all takes probably very few minutes for each medical representative to get it done!!

So in all probability, the Doctor may not remember the spelling of these new medicines!!

In India, most doctors sitting in every locality, writes the prescription only in their prescription pad and gives that to his patient..

So they write in a way no one can understand!!

how are you doc.webp

picture source:Timepass online
 
Dear Sri Padmanabhan,

Not all. Doctors' handwriting need not be foul scrach writing. My two cousins who are leading Surgeons have beautiful hand writing. Our family physician in Coimbatore used to write his prescriptions for mixtures in legible hand writing. How ever while I spent a few days in an Ashram in Rishikesh, I had an attack of diarrhea. The Doctor attached to the Ashram wrote a prescription and asked me to get the medicines from the free medicine shop attached to his clinic. When I looked at the prescription I thought the Doctor had written in Urdu. But the chemist deciphered the writing correctly and told me it was in English.!!

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
 
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I always thought, either

1. Doctors write poorly with a purpose, that the medicines can be read only by the 'learned' pharmicist [to preserve the pharmacist job and for security reasons]. But now, all medicines and their details are on the web, anyone can come to learn their uses/side-effects.

2. Those who use knives frequently, cannot have subtle finger-skills (of art/writing) ;)
Plus, medical education spends more time on dissections/experiments/reading than writing ;) Lucky We, they don't need to write lengthy paragraphs/articles, just two-liner prescriptions! i
 
In 2002, approximately 100,000 people were given the wrong medication from a medical professional. 7,000 people were killed because they were given the wrong medication. Administering the wrong medication to a patient is one of the leading types of medical negligence that causes serious injury and illness. Wrong medication can lead to serious problems for the victims of this type of medical negligence. Wrong medicine administration is one of the best tracked medical errors and can occur in hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, and in home care.
Nurses follow the "Five Rs" in medication administration as part of their standard of care responsibilities.
Right medication to the
Right Patient in the
Right dose by the
Right route at the
Right time
These steps must be adhered to so that a patient does not receive the wrong medication or medication that will injure or harm them in some way. If this standard of care is not adhered to and the wrong medication is given, the health care professional may be liable in a medical malpractice case.

This is a statistics from USA. Like PJji, said here in USA the doctor transmits the prescription electronically, so there is little chance of misreading due to bad handwriting.
I do not know the comparable number in India. How many of those can be attributed to bad writing?
 
This is an age old secret you are digging out. It was not doctors who used to give medicines for ever. Doctor using his degree write a permit to the pahrmacist to give appropriate medicine to the patient. This permit need not be read except for an authorized signature in a letter head. The pharmacist ask your symptoms and choose appropriate medicine to your condition using her 6 months diploma. You paid big bucks to the doctor for his degree and a small sum to the pharmacist. Isn't it funny. Don't worry I was making a joke out of your post. Go to ayurvedic doctors if you want to be cured. Enjoy english medicine.
 
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