[I spent some time looking for where to put this post; I thought we had a thread about computer jargon, but I couldn't find it.]
GIGO: Garbage in, garbage out. That is how physicians often feel about documenting their care via the paperless system, according to an "American Medical News" article.
In fact, at Cedars-Sinai in California the physicians have revolted against the use of the computerized order entry system.
As a nurse, I can only tell you that reading their handwriting is akin to finding a needle in a haystack!
I have never figured out why doctors have the worst handwriting of all. There are others who write more in their professions (or less...). Perhaps, though, it is that physicians have to be precise in their writing; often lives depend on it. For others, perhaps the accuracy doesn't matter as much. Or, maybe those in other professions use computers for their writing more than physicians do (e.g., lawyers never handwrite anything). I can only tell you that I would hate to have to read a "life-or-death" medical order written by my lawyer husband!
My observation is that doctors' handwriting gets worse and worse as they get busier and busier. If they take time, their writing is more legible than most. There just isn't time to do everything that's needed during the day. Besides, most doctors notes [years ago, anyway] were meant to be read by only the doctor, and as such the atrocious illegibility was less obvious since "no one else" needed to read them.
By now doctors are (at least in hospitals) much more involved with a team, and so legibility becomes more necessary. Time, unfortunately, hasn't evolved in parallel, and so the problem remains with us.
It's one of the more embarrassing scenarios when a doctor is confronted in court with his (women's writing is usually better, even time-pressed and distracted multi-tasking MDs) own notes and has to acknowledge in public that even he can't read them...
quote:It's one of the more embarrassing scenarios when a doctor is confronted in court with his (women's writing is usually better, even time-pressed and distracted multi-tasking MDs) own notes and has to acknowledge in public that even he can't read them...
As a nurse, I have been in the situation where the doctor actually asked me to read his writing....and, the worst of it is, usually I could decipher it better than he could! Nurses develop this amazing talent for reading the unreadable. I never realized it until I had students, and I would literally have to read to them the patients' progress reports.
quote:Originally posted by Graham Nice: Don't you just hate them?
This three letter acronym post reminded me of one of the Dilbert cartoons.
Pointy headed boss asked him what he was working on and he replied "The TTP project". Asked what TTP stood for he answered "The TTP Project".
Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben. - Friedrich Nietzsche
