doctors' handwriting

Wasn't doctors' handwriting supposed to be hard to read?

The poor quality of doctors' handwriting has long been a source of jokes.

A 2002 study of 368 hospitals blamed overworked nursing staff, doctors' handwriting and computer-entry errors for drug mistakes.

Pharmacists sometimes misread doctors' handwriting.

Pharmacists still find it maddening trying to decipher doctors' handwriting, and they still dress in those familiar white smocks that resemble bowling shirts.

Doctors' handwriting and archaic carbon-copy order sheets may be a factor, but modernization with ward-to-pharmacy computer systems are not priorities when hospitals are struggling to survive.

Errors typically occur when pharmacists improperly stock drugs, when nurses fail to be sure they are administering the proper medication or when doctors' handwriting is misread, among other reasons, the newspaper said.

New Britain Hospital in Connecticut, for example, has recently adopted imaging technologies that can absorb written records - even doctors' handwriting - for an archive of patient information that administrators say will form the foundation of an on-line interactive system.

Without outside help in paying for computerized systems, many hospitals are searching for less expensive, low-technology ways to improve safety - like improving doctors' handwriting and standardizing drug doses, said Kelly Devers, a health policy expert at Virginia Commonwealth University.