New Research Finds Danger In Poor Penmanship

NBC -- Doctors have long been the butt of jokes when it comes to their sloppy handwriting, but new research shows just how dangerous poor penmanship can be.

From the physician's fingertips, to a pharmacy window, billions of prescriptions are written and filled every year in this country.

But if the pharmacist can't read the doctor's handwriting, the patient could receive the wrong dosage, or even the wrong medication.

Take, for example, similarities between the names of two drugs, Celebrex, a pain medication, and Celexa, an anti-depressant.

And simply putting a decimal point in the wrong place could increase the dosage 10 times the recommended amount.

Dr. Ashish Atreja of the Cleveland Clinic says "these kinds of mistakes happen all the time, especially because now the healthcare is becoming much more complex. Each patient is on multiple medications."

But according to a new study from the University of Minnesota, hospitals that have switched from handwritten prescriptions to a computerized system reduced the number of medication errors by as much as 66 percent.

The majority of those errors, researchers say, were directly linked to illegible handwriting and transcription mistakes.

A recent nationwide sample of hospitals found that only about 9 percent of facilities have completely switched to a computerized prescription system.

Dr. Atreja says "I think the benefit ultimately trickles down to the patient because they get a better healthcare."

Researchers say a system that takes the guesswork out of prescriptions ensures patients really do get what the doctor ordered.

At least one medical school is taking matters into its own hands, so to speak.

In addition to teaching med students how to use electronic records, Indiana University School of Medicine also teaches penmanship in hopes of avoiding future errors.