Doctors’ handwriting is as bad as ever
“*A doctor prescribed the Alzheimer’s disease drug Reminyl. The pharmacist misread it as Amaryl, a diabetes drug. Consequently, the patient wound up in the hospital with dangerously low blood sugar.

*A patient was supposed to get the angina drug Isordil, but the pharmacist misread the prescription as Plendil, a drug for high blood pressure. The patient suffered a heart attack and died.

*Poorly written prescriptions for the diabetes drug Avandia can be mistaken for the blood thinner Coumadin. Both are available as 4 mg. tablets, increasing the likelihood of mix-ups . . .

. . . Abbreviations are especially troublesome. The abbreviation U (for unit) can be mistaken as zero, and IU (international unit) can look like IV (intravenous) or 10. The Latin abbreviation Q.D. (once daily) can be mistaken for Q.O.D. (every other day).”