Handwriting

There is one thing that doctor's are known for. I'm not talking about long hours or nice cars. Not white coats or stethoscopes. Doctors are known for terrible handwriting! We all know it, and unfortunately we generally live up to the stereotype. Honestly, this is one of my biggest pet peeves.

This week I consulted a few specialists in the hospital. I wanted their expert opinions on how to workup one patient's condition and how to treat another's. The specialists came around and saw the patients just as I had asked. Shortly after, my pager went off, and the nurse let me know they'd been around. I headed back to the hospital after I finishing up at the clinic. I opened the chart in anticipation of their recommendations. On top of the page "cardiology" was scribbled in black ink. There were about five more waving and dotted lines below, but I struggled to make out any other recognizable words. How helpful! I was aggravated but decided to just call them and clarify. I looked at the bottom of the page and there again is a scribbled signature. Not a big deal. After all, the hospital knows that 99.9% of doctor's signatures aren't legible (mine included) so there is a standing policy to write your ID number or pager next to your John Hancock. Sure enough,next to the sribbled signature were several numbers. Do you think I could read them? Nope. Is that a 4 or a 9 or an 8? Aahh!! They basically wasted their time doing the consult.

Now I take pride in having readable writing. And until we go to all electronic medical records, I'm sure I'll be frustrated by other doctor's lack of handwriting pride many more times. So I apologize on behalf of my profession for sometimes forgetting our first-grade lessons. :)