Friday, July 27, 2007

Rx

Went to a great lecture today: tips for writing prescriptions. There can be quite an art to it, and it's something that is traditionally only learned by physicians the hard way, after they're already in practice. Believe it or not, this is the first time in over three years of medical school that I've gotten any formal instruction on the correct way to write a prescription (and I've already written quite a few, although they all have to be countersigned by somebody with a medical license, of course). Before this I, too, owed everything I knew about it to a few clinicians who were kind enough to show me the ropes while I was working in their clinics. Hundreds of hours spent learning enzyme pathways and pharmacokinetics, but so far one classroom hour spent on the actual document to get all of this biochemical firepower into the hands (and GI tracts and bloodstreams) of patients.

It's got me wondering whether anyone I knew (perhaps even readers of this humble blog?) have had issues with a prescription that interfered with optimal delivery of their medication.

2 Comments:

At July 27, 2007 at 4:00 PM , Blogger Grand Canyon Hiker said...

Ben, up until recently, I had never seen a prescription that I could read due in large part to the horrific handwriting of doctors. But that was not amazing or even remarkable, just a truism we all accepted about doctors and penmanship. But here is what I found amazing. Pharmacist could read them. It was a special secret code that doctors and pharmacists shared; I was convinced.

More recently, I've seen a few legible prescriptions that impressed me, but then I learned that they were written by their office staff. Very clever, I thought. Now they are hiding their code.

Keep up the good work!

 
At July 30, 2007 at 8:17 PM , Blogger Madame Leiderhosen said...

That endearing way Doctor Susan Lu dots her 'i's with little circles makes me feel like I am rushing off to the pharmacist clutching a love note or salvation in a sweaty palm.

Percosets makes Steven argumentative and aggressive. He was looping out on them after throwing out his back (while doing nothing) at my parents' house and was such an asshole on the drive back that I almost shoved him out of the car in the vicinity of San Ramon. Next time I'm hitting him that that big cartoon-like red rubber mallet.

 

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