Are Your Medical Prescriptions Written In All CAPS?

Lakshmi Sankar recently went to a pharmacist with a prescription given by her doctor. But the pharmacist had no clue what the medicine prescribed was. The handwriting was so hopeless. Despite the Indian Medical Association (IMA) issuing a circular asking doctors to write the prescriptions only in capital letters, many of them do not follow the directive. 

"About 50% of the doctors, particularly in modern science (allopathy), are adhering to the prescription style that recommends use of capital letters, claims Dr Pragji Vaja, Secretary IMA (Mumbai Branch).

“We continue to encourage doctors to be cautious with their writing as patients usually don't reconfirm the medicines after they purchase them”, he adds, emphasising that prescriptions with capital letters are more readable. With capital letters, the chances of the pharmacist dispensing the wrong medicine are vastly less. 

Patient should understand what's written

Dr Nehal Patel, a noted proctologist in Mumbai, expresses that every patient has the right to know what medicine the doctor has prescribed and why. “Even for Googling more info, one should know what medicine is written. It should not happen that it's a code language between the pharmacist and the doctor. Handwriting should be very clear, and bold letters must be used. It just makes it comprehensible”, she says.

She further tells us that an ideal prescription should have a name, the age, the gender, the date, then the medicines, wherein the name is in bold capital letters along with the dosage, followed by the doctor's signature.  

Not thinking about format during consultation

"We don't remember or actively practice all caps format, but agree it’s better. Our idea after attending to the patient is to write down the correct medicines. Handwriting and letter case are not something we are thinking about", explains Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi, a city-based Oral and MaxilloFacial Surgeon. 

Typed prescriptions

In the digital era, where many people are opting for virtual consultation and automated prescriptions, the typical ‘doctor’s handwriting’ is completely ruled out. 

"Computer-typed and printed copies are the best, and most big hospitals are already doing it. Local clinics are ones which issue handwritten prescriptions, which we are able to read, but patients ask for assistance", says Anuj Sharma, Asst. Store Manager at Noble Chemists situated within 500m of the Mumbai AIDS Control Society in Wadala. He admits that most doctors don't focus on capitalising the medicine names and other details. 

CAPS not widely in practice

Another pharmacist, Vinay Singh, store manager of Janata Medicals in Antop Hill, located next to Pooja Nursing Home, believes the IMA's suggestion towards readability is almost forgotten. 

He honestly shares, “I wasn’t much aware that using capital letters was recommended by the association, as it doesn’t reflect in medical practice by several doctors in the area. They usually keep the first letter capitalized, and then their classic writing follows. Sometimes, we also find it difficult to read doctors’ words, but with practice, we manage to decode them”. 

Beware of quack doctors online

Also, authorised medical professionals claim that a lot of health services on websites operate with quack doctors who don’t adhere to the IMA standards of drafting prescriptions.