Email Updates
Review
A scoping review of legibility of hand-written prescriptions and drug-orders: the writing on the wall.
July 12, 2023
Ariaga A, Balzan D, Falzon S, et al. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2023;16(7):617-621.
Illegible prescriptions can cause pharmacists to dispense incorrect medications resulting in patient harm. This review identified 15 studies on illegible prescriptions. Most of the studies were more than 10 years old and the authors acknowledge the advent of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) has reduced incidence of illegible prescriptions. However, CPOE relies on highly functional information technology systems which may be cost-prohibitive for some countries.
