BY C.S. KRISHNAMURTHY 

 

ISTROLL into a pharmacy armed with a doctor’s prescription. The ink on the paper resembles a Jackson Pollock masterpiece more than legible instructions. The pharmacist, armed with years of deciphering hieroglyphics, smirks and assures me, “This doctor has been prescribing only this mystery potion for ages. Don’t panic.” Now, I’m stuck in a classic catch-22 – trust the doctor with the cryptic squiggles or roll the dice with the pharmacist’s insider knowledge? Is it doctor’s prescription or ancient manuscript? The struggle is real. We’ve all chuckled at the stereotype of doctors having handwriting that compete with a spider on roller skates. My school teacher, with a knuckle-wielding authority, would’ve been proud of such penmanship punishment. But are the doctors truly miscreants of the penmanship world? A New York study from 2010 revealed a jaw-dropping 37 errors for every 100 paper prescriptions. Illegible handwriting isn’t just a joke; it’s a potential cocktail for patient discomfort. In an age where emails and texts have stolen the handwriting spotlight, medical prescriptions stand as the relics of a bygone era. Doctors, racing against time, often unleash a hurried chicken scratch on the prescription pad.

 

Perhaps they’re victims of time constraints, or maybe they just lack the motivation for aesthetically pleasing penmanship. Seriously, when was the last time you heard of a doctor winning the “Best Handwriting” award? The real hidden language: I had a wild thought – do the medical colleges have a secret class on ‘How to write incomprehensibly’? While shorthand is a part of stenography, is there medical shorthand for prescription scribbles? The mischievous pharmacist, with a twinkle in their eye, suggested, “If a prescription looks too neat, I get suspicious!” It seems doctors are the only professionals who craft their own prescriptions. Maybe it’s an exclusive language meant for the eyes of the pharmacists, the mystical beings who can translate the chaos into order. But what about us, the mere mortals deciphering those unreadable jumble? Unlike a casual text where context helps unravel meaning, medical prescriptions don’t play by those rules. Misinterpretation could lead to improper dosage or worse, mistreatment. In some countries like the US, doctors face fines for their illegible prescriptions.

 

It leaves us wondering – is there a hidden agenda? A secret code to keep patients in the dark…? And why do these same doctors turn into surgical artists crafting perfect incisions with hand steadier than a mountain? Reading a doctor’s prescription is an acquired skill. Forget about learning it in school; each doctor has their own unique sauce. Is their handwriting unintentional factor in the assessment of medical intelligence? Imagine a world where computers send prescriptions directly to the pharmacy, saving us from the deciphering dance. A remedy for prescription chaos, perhaps! Keyboards over quills for the future: As we navigate this prescription odyssey, one burning question remains: Can lady physicians write legibly? It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle, covered in illegible scribbles. But perhaps, in the grand symphony of medicine, the notes on the prescription pad are meant to be played by the skilled fingers of pharmacists. Here’s to hoping the era of indecipherable prescriptions soon becomes a bedtime story for future generations.