The medical community has for generations tolerated poor handwriting, a human

problem, on the part of physicians and staff, jo doctor.” there’sHowever,nothing funny about illegib and there’s toleratingnoexcuseit.Whilesomeforstudies have shown that

doctors have handwriting that is worse than other professionals, other studies have shown otherwise.ter whoseIt handwritingdoesn’tisworsemat.Ascribbled

note to Aunt Jessie doesn’t have athe same im cardiac medication or an illegible nurse progress note. The problem lies with

nurses and other staff as well as physicians. If notes cannot be understood, important information may be overlooked. Newer computer programs have built-

in safeguards to check medication dosages and sound alarms if ordering or administering dosage is incorrect, but still errors occur because handwritten orders and notes remain common:

Ensuring legible handwriting

Require all staff to write legible notes, preferably with block printing.

Verify ALL orders that are not written clearly, every single time: “I’m sor can’t read soyourIneedwritoing,verify your ord Tell people directly that their hand Tell administrators or supervisors i read John Brown’s handwriting.”

Never guess what something says and act on that.  NEVER.

Verbal/telephone orders and reporting

As part of improving communication, the Joint Commission has established clear guidelines for verbal or telephone orders or reporting of critical laboratory results, requiring “read-back”atthe end of the communication. Read-back is required of all medical personnel, including physicians, so all staff must be trained not only to provide read-back but also to ask for it if the person receiving information fails to follow the correct procedure. This requirement precludes leaving messages for orders or critical test results on voice mail. The receiver MUST transcribe the order and call back to complete a read-back before acting on the orders or information. There is not yet a Joint Commission requirement that read-back be

documented, but some institutions-back have chose completed,” and this is a very goodThe method t responsibility for avoiding do-not-use terms lies with the person giving the

communication, not the transcriber, but the transcriber can prompt and clarify and often avoid do-not-use terms, especially if the order is not clear. An effective method is to include-back” andboth-back“read“repeat.”

Repeat-back and read-back.

Aspirin 81 mg daily.

Regular non-restricted diet.

Is that correct.”