What's wrong with doctors' handwriting?

Abstract

'1 The latest salvo from the Medical Council of India (MCI) insisting on legible handwriting of doctors is admirable, though much delayed.2 This directive is expected to reduce the number of potential medical errors that occur due to illegible handwriting and spelling mistakes. Poor handwriting undoubtedly contributes to a high incidence of medical errors.3 In Britain, medical errors were estimated to cause deaths of up to 30 000 people per year3 and in the USA up to 100 000 per year.3 Other authors have cautioned that illegible handwriting in prescriptions may lead to fatal consequences4 and is a leading cause of medication error.5 How many such errors happen in India, where English is not the primary language of doctors, is anybody's guess. Educational interventions were found effective in addressing the problem in one study.12 With the knowledge translation approach to improve prescription practice, there was a significant improvement in many error rates-illegible prescriptions reduced from 39.4% to 13.4% (p<0.001) and absent or illegible prescriber name from 38.3% to 27.0% (p<0.001).14 It is recommended that a computerized physician order should be used to decrease prescription errors.9 In the near future, the whole process may change with digital prescriptions and digital records going directly to the pharmacy and chemists from the doctor's computer, which will take care of poor handwriting of doctors and reduce visible medical errors and mishaps.