Doctors Fail Handwriting Test
New technology may help patients get understandable prescriptions
Hyderabad: Retelling a personal ordeal while going through his doctor’s prescriptions, a retired government employee recalled a remark once made by his schoolteacher: “You scribble like a doctor!” Since then, he made it a point to improve his handwriting. But now, with frequent visits to doctors, he realises what his teacher had meant.
Earlier this year, the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, and Odisha directed doctors to write prescriptions and diagnoses in capital letters. In a recent ruling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court even said that it was a patient’s fundamental right under Article 21 (Right to Life) to receive prescriptions in legible handwriting.
However, these directives have had little impact on the ground. Patients across both urban and rural areas continue to face the same problem — doctors writing in illegible handwriting, sometimes even deliberately. In some cases, pharmacists right outside the clinics struggle to read them.
“Gone are those days when doctors’ authority was unquestioned. Now we hear of doctors fraudulently prescribing medicines, sometimes in connivance with pharmacists. Poorly written prescriptions only ensure that no one knows what is being sold to the patient. That said, I have noticed a change recently, especially among women doctors, whose prescriptions and diagnoses are clear,” said Geetika Mishra, an IT professional from Kondapur.
“According to NABH norms, documentation should be legible, and the doctor’s name must be written in capital letters beneath the signature, so it is clear who wrote the notes. In our hospital, most senior doctors follow this practice, but it has to be insisted upon with junior doctors,” said Dr Kavita of Osmania General Hospital. NABH is the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers.
“As per NMC (National Medical Commission) guidelines, every doctor should write only the generic names of prescribed drugs, preferably in capital letters, and in legible handwriting,” said Dr M. Rajeev, consultant pulmonologist and member of the Telangana Medical Council.
The council has collected many badly written prescriptions from unqualified practitioners. “The guidelines also help in identifying quacks, because most of them cannot even spell the names of medicines. They deliberately use illegible handwriting to scam patients. It is often assumed that only rural or government doctors do this, but in reality, around 80 per cent of doctors write badly. MBBS students are actually trained in their final year to write clear prescriptions. It is a weak excuse to say that only junior doctors are at fault, since many senior doctors also fail to comply with the norms,” Dr Rajeev added.
He pointed out that patients can approach their state medical councils with complaints if they feel doctors are not writing prescriptions or diagnoses properly or failing to explain them in clear, understandable terms. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had further suggested adopting printed prescription systems. However, not all hospitals have the infrastructure, such as computers and typists, to implement this.
When asked whether prescriptions could be written in local languages such as Telugu, Dr Rajeev explained that while diagnoses can be written and explained in the patient’s language, the names of medicines must still be written in English.
With the growing role of artificial intelligence, handwritten prescriptions may soon be obsolete. AIG Hospitals has already been using PRISM, an AI-enabled software that tracks doctor–patient conversations and generates prescriptions and reports. Doctors are currently testing the software, which is reported to have an accuracy rate of more than 90 per cent.
Doctors at many corporate hospitals have switched over to printing out their prescriptions. Printing out the papers, it was noted, was not mandatory. Many, however, continue to write the brand name of medicines.