Deciphering the physician note

Abstract

Objective information about legibility of physician handwriting is scant. This retrospective chart review compared handwritten general medicine clinic chart notes from internal medicine faculty and housestaff with their typed counterparts. The written counterparts took 11 seconds (46%) longer to read and 5 seconds (11%) longer to answer comprehension questions. The authors' comprehension measure (developed specifically for ambulatory clinic notes) was only slightly higher for typed notes. The legibility of physician handwriting is not as dismal as assumed; physicians can effectively communicate on paper.

Impact of an electronic information system on physician workflow and data collection in the intensive care unit

“…3). 3 The strings that result from the natural language generation are transferred automatically to a document template in Microsoft Word 97 (Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., USA) which is printed for incorporation into the paper chart.…”

Illegible Handwriting in Medical Records

“…The originator may understand what has been written, but difficulties can arise when other parties are involved. Only a few studies, however, have been reported on the legibility of medical documents and these largely about prescriptions [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] . We therefore decided to examine the legibility of case histories written on admission of patients to our hospital.…”

Physicians, Information Technology, and Health Care Systems: A Journey, Not a Destination

“…16,17 Further, the legibility of physicians' writing is better than its reputation. [18][19] Finally, the problem of ambiguous medication names and doses can be ameliorated by Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization ( JCAHO) regulations that will banish certain abbreviations and prescription writing conventions. 20 Ash and colleagues raise a host of similar issues related to the ability of rigid computer systems to tame and serve the enormously complex and time-critical processes that churn within health care institutions.…”