Ningbo hospital s fines of illegible handwritting on medical records stir debate

Shadam (China)

With patients transferring between institutions or being referred by other specialists, I believe perfectly legible handwriting is crucial for patients safety. If nurses cant read illegible handwriting they possibly dispense wrong medicines or perform incorrect diagnostic procedures.

Michael (US)

I am a dentist and the answer is yes, illegible handwriting can be justified. Firstly doctors do not have bad handwriting they just choose to write badly. This is not a conscious decision to confuse people but an unintentional consequence of viewing other things as more important or urgent at that moment.

Beachbum (China)

I dont know if this still happens, but a good friend of mine, a pharmacist told me that they had an extra course in handwriting analysis at university in order to help them decipher handwriting on prescriptions. An example I saw framed in a pharmacy a few years ago, was a prescription that consisted of two wavy lines with full stops at the end. So it does seem that this is a known phenomenon in this field.

Arman Hossain (China)

My mother is a doctor and her answers inspired me. To avoid being involved in medical disputes, they should use handwriting which is hard to copy. Whats more, prescriptions always contain Latin; few people could understand the Latin name of the medicine.

Ryan (UK)

Someone once told me doctors scribble to protect patients privacy and confidential information. That may be true and possibly alright for private practices where only one doctor takes charge of patients.

Amari (China)

There are so few things in the culture of medicine to force them to be legible. Physicians make very expensive secretaries, so theyd rather write quickly and pay attention to the next patient and let other people sort it out.

LINK:	http://en.nbwh.gov.cn/art/2015/4/13/art_1325_67049.html...
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