#1 Dinosaur takes offense at this stereotype:
First of all, how legible is the handwriting of the average adult in any profession today? Who knows? How much longhand writing does anyone do anymore anyway? Not much. Handwriting fatigues the more you write, so being expected to write the equivalent of up to 15 pages by hand daily (hospital notes and prescriptions, not to mention office notes for those of us without EMRs) might explain some diminished penmanship . . .. . . But I know for a fact that I am not the only doctor with legible handwriting, and I am sick of listening to assumptions about my penmanship based on the letters MD after my name.
Related posts:
- Sam Blackman on poor physician handwriting
- More on bad doctor handwriting
- Prescription handwriting quiz
- Poor handwriting leads to an infant’s death
- The unintended consequences of electronic records
- Can you read these prescriptions, again?
- Hospital charges and the uninsured
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{ 5 comments }
Oh, but the problem is, bad handwriting in most professions is an inconvenience, not a danger.
This is like the canard about cops sitting on their asses at Dunkin Donuts, or the thing about Richard Gere and the gerbil. It’s passed into the realm of urban myth. There’s no going back. The joke will morph into something else when all records, prescriptions etc. go completely electronic.
Examine an ear: Hey doc, do you see any daylight on the other side?
-Har har. That’s the first time I ever heard that one!
The dentists stil get the stupid Hey doc while your’e in there drilling, if you strike and oil I’ll go 50/50 with you on it.
-Har har. That’s the first time I ever heard that one!
It’ll never end.
More med errors are caused by computer entry errors than by illegible handwriting.
This is all about getting docs to accept EMR so the controllers can control healthcare at the point of service. If you value freedom and privacy, don’t fall for it. If you don’t, please get out of my country.
when i was in residency. there were a few doctors whose handwriting you could easily read.. and maybe 5 who were very difficult to read. my writing is pretty neat. at least when i know its important for someone to be able to read it.
There is no excuse for illegible prescriptions or orders other than irresponsibility. On the other hand, difficult to read handwriting is sometimes not only acceptable but serves a laudable purpose. Confidentialy of health records has virtually collapsed. Gazillions of buerocratic gnomes look at everything. It is sometimes desirable to make notes that can only be interpreted by you in a deposition. This was pointed out to me by a child psychiatrist once who made a point to produce notes that could only be read by him.
“These kids are living the most embarrassing moments of their lives. I am required by law to make a record and need to do so for my own protection. They are going to go through life coerced into signing releases of information or doing so mindless of the consequences. This way, they wil only be able to see dates of service, diagnosis codes, and meds–if anyones actually wants detail of who did what to whom, they are going to have to go through me.”
I thought it a very good point and now have a new respect for the time and place for scrawls. Unlike an EMR, it isn’t going to metastasize on hard drives all over the universe.
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