Do you ever wonder why doctor's write the way they do?

[melanie2]

I posted a blog elsewhere about this subject.."We could have sued...we use a mail service for our perscriptions, and yesterday they mailed my husband a medicine he didn't recognize..because it ended in tril, we assumed it was his high blood pressure med..but it didn't look familiar..hubby is diabetic also, so he has several different meds, including insulin, which he takes in a shot form, three times a day..this particular medicine pill looked different because it came in various colors..so hubby decided to look the med up online..and this is what he found..it is an anti histamine..and can also be used to control anxiety..and is often given before surgery to help the patient control anxiety and make them drowsy..what if he had taken it and not looked it up online..so then he called the mail service perscription place..finally got a representative..it was the wrong med, as the doctor's handwriting was too difficult to read..if he had taken this med, and since he travels often..he could have fallen asleep at the wheel..could have wrecked..maybe it doesn't work with his diabetes...many possibilities come to mind...before we had the computer what would we have done? i shudder to think.."

Because of the illegible handwriting of my husband's doctor, the mail service pharmacy sent him the wrong medication..which could have proved extremely dangerous, considering my husband's health conditions..in a profession where they are dealing with life and death..shouldn't a doctor's handwriting be legible? why do they write in such a sloppy manner, are they trying to show off? i've joked that my handwriting is as bad as a doctor's, but my handwriting isn't necessary to read in a life and death situation..if my husband had not done what he did, he could have taken this med for a while without realizing, and maybe suffered terrible side effects..it might not have mixed with his diabetes...i believe doctors should pay more attention to their style of writing..
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[sadi]

I think most doctors are too preoccupied with everything else that's on their plate to look at the paper while they're writing it. That's why secretaries have to be really good at discerning what all the chicken scratches mean. Heh.
(I've been compared to a doctor/artist/teacher MANY times - by my handwriting being too spidery and rushed for even me to understand some of the time. :blush)

 

[chicag0]

Yeah, it seems standard that doctors have horrible handwriting. They're busy and their jobs seem pretty stressful so they write fairly fast and sloppy.

Now, it's more the fault of the pharmacy company. They should have called the doctor to verify rather than assuming it was another kind of medication.

 

[PurpleStyle]

'Being busy' is no excuse for taking an extra second to write your name in a way that doesn't make you look like a douche bag. The only exception is if lives are in danger, and you need to move your butt.

 

[Cbarton]

A good pharmacist doesn't guess. If I was never sure, I called the office to confirm after looking at the patient's profile to see what they had been on before. From your description, I can probably guess what the doctor wrote for and what they filled it with. That is way many hospitals now ahve the docs enter it directly into the computer (CPOE) to prevent such errors.

 

[melanie2]

yes hubby went with the mail service pharmacy to save money...plus they send you enough for ninety days etc...we used to use The Medicine Shoppe which i know for a fact would have called us..cheap is not always best..

 

[Volsung1]

You definitely have to be aware and look out for yourself. Make it a habit to look at labels. I know David did and it certainly paid off. Nobody is infallible.