Greedy Trial Lawyer
Can Pharmacists Believe Everything They Read?
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OnThePharm has an interesting exercise that may partly explain why there are so many prescription errors.
Can you read these prescriptions? (Round 2)
[Take a minute to study these handwritten gems.]
Remember there's more to a prescription than the drug. You need to get:Drug name
strength
directions
quantity
number of refills
[See if the prescriptions do the job.]
The problem with an illegible prescription is that it may not be perceived as illegible by the filling pharmacy. In other words, depending on the phase of the moon the pharmacist can "read" just about any prescription if he tries hard enough. But, will his "read" be what was intended to be written?
Is it time to put our quills away and turn to typing prescriptions?
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Comments
Thanks for the link. You've brought up an angle I hadn't thought about when it comes to bad handwriting. In my case, I just want to get it right; I'm not usually thinking about covering my ass, so to speak. (Doing the right thing trumps CYA, and always will, for me.)
I will have to ruminate further on your angle, because it's not something we think about at the ground level most of the time. (At least I don't; maybe there are paranoid types who do think like this.) I'd have to say though, I feel sorry for those that have these bizarre, aggressive shark-like thought patterns. Must be a crappy way to go through life. In your case, you get paid to do it, but I see this sort of behavior from all kinds of people, and they're usually all looking for an edge.
Posted by: RJS at May 17, 2007 10:31 PM