European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 5, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes Pago 9 health & science news illegible prescriptions no joking matter doctors poor penmanship can be dangerous even Ullh threatening by Charles Seabrook co new sen ire Atlanta the doctor s scribbling in the Fth be in old woman s prescription culled for thai inc pharma Tki thou Lii As Diab inese a drug fur Diane lev he filled inc prescription accordingly. of the anti heartburn drug Dia Lumc the doctor had prescribed the human hospitalized for a broken ice received doses of Din indic. Causing her blood sugar to plummet and leaving her in a coma. A few of cays later Hospital workers discovered the mis take the pharmacist confused by the doctor s illegible handwriting Rud misread the prescription. La is u prime example health authorities say of like serious and sometimes life threatening problems hat occasionally siem from poor handwriting among doctors. They say Hal although poor penmanship has been a Noto rious Irah among doctors and a Bull of jokes for Ages in no longer should be considered a laughing mutter. The Price we pay Jbv i legibility includes lower Quality of care 3 Wasie of professional time potential Legal prob lems and a waste of resources in duplicating data Hal Are lost because of i legibility says or. Karen b. White of Georgetown University Hospital in Washington . While Alozij with fail la in or. Juhr i heir Iii. Unite recently in the new a Nylind of Medicine a considerable Porttiin o most medical records illegible f ram a study of 50 Pati Iii a cords. The found Thill up i 52 percent of inc words in some Rit lords were Merible. And i percent Ether. 5s percent of Tiu in for main in contained in the Emilil Nul be comprehended be cause of it air handwriting. An ability to read patients Criaris is vital for nurses and other health care workers in order to provide patients with appropriate care. Pharmacists in particular say thai confusion Over tic ions scrawls leads to patients getting wrong docs of Medicine or the wrong drug altogether in is in especially serious problem today when there Are thousands of different drugs whose names look and sound alike said Larry Braden. Executive director of the Georgia pharmaceutical association. He said thai when pharmacists have any doubt about a prescription they should phone the doctor for clarification. Hut inc system is nol foolproof he said and mistakes stemming from doctors poor handwriting occur oct Ariun ally. Brndon said pharmacists who often fill prescriptions from certain doctors learn How to decipher the doctors handwriting. Hut. In Large chips where their Are hundreds of i Lor and pharmacies pharmacist in Ifill see in la one Prcic rip lion from a doctor in year and might have to play guessing games about the prescription if the hand writing is illegible. In Small towns however where there Are Only unc or two pluralities Arul u handful of doctors inc pharmacies know How to rend the doctors hand riling because Thuv Deal with it souk a said a radon. For Cumpek Linden said that in Marichu. A suburb us Atlanta. Pharmacists Nave Long been familiar Wilh the especially bad handwriting of a certain doctor. Ind new pharmacists coming on Board at the drugstores Are quickly Laughl How to inner Prici the doctor s scribbling. Once that doctor went on a Long vacation to Ruu und. Ivhon he sent a letter Back to his in Marietta Lelling about his travels the family could t read said Braden. So they Mil the Kiter la some Alki racist. Who had Learned Long ago i to interpret the doctor s hand do. A Mac or Oum t � the u v t, expert traces Rise in americans life expectancy new Haven Conn. Up1 advances in diet und Nie Dirini r visit it if Iivori Iii Ani Rienne s life1 rurvctnncrv1 a id is Medicine raised the average american s life expectancy about three years in the past two decades speeding up the slow Rise Over thousands of ears a Yale University re searcher said tuesday this is essentially True for the who United said or. Adrian m. Ostfeld speaking before about 150 people Al a Yule conference on health prospects for older americans. It s taken thousands of years in inc past 10 incr Psi life expectancy by three Osif Cul said. The Yale professor began studying habits and tilth problems of 2,812 elderly persons from new Haven in 1981. People apparently arc living healthier physicians arc doing u Good Job treating and coronary care units arc saving lives he said. If the present trend continues to the end of the Century. Americans will have an additional life expectancy of three or four years Ostfeld mid. Ostfeld said his research puts the average Uge of an american mule at 70, while women will live to 78. Decrease in smoking improvements in prevention and treatment of heart at tacks and strokes a drop in the number of smokers a decrease in he consumption of fatty foods and attention to treating High blood pressure have contributed to the Loa Mcvity Ostfeld concluded. Ostfeld s findings along Wilh those from medical re searchers Al Harvard University and the University of Iowa will be published this Ummer by the . Depart ment of health and human services. Older und Middle aged people Are having substantially fewer heart attacks and strokes and arc More Likely o survive when they do Ostfeld said adding that women Are the key to improving the health of family members. In More than 70 percent of our Cates women a nude the doctors appoint mems reminded husbands to fill their pc tar options put pills in the right place and fixed meals according to diet he said. Oslo old s study also found Hal older people forced to relocate had iwo to i rec limes As Many and surgical procedures und were two to Ihrcke times More America s aging population persons aged 65 and Over As a percent of total . Population 1950 60 70 80 90 2000 10 20 30 Cheapo Tribune photo a . Census Burea and oct smutty Likely to go into a mining Home. Ostfeld Laid psychological and social factors thai improve an elderly person s health status include having a child living within 50 Miles having it k not two Good friends having religious belief and participating in religious activities. Whit continues to remain a mystery to researchers is Why women in the United states outlive men by seven 10 eight years he said. That s a very very hard problem to Oil Feld said. You could either say it s biological or to some extent social und behaviour ii. My View is both farces arc operate Rise in longevity increases Chance of 50-year marriage new York a although to Day s typical Bride and Groom Are older than heir counterparts Al the Lurn of the Century their Chance of living the next 50 years together u More than twice us great provided they Don t divorce says a report released this week. The probability of Golden wedding anniversaries for brides and grooms who slay married has increased by 26 percent Dur ing the last decade alone according to the Liesl Issue of statistical bulletin published by the metropolitan life insurance co. The increase in the joint survival of married people is largely a result of the increase in life expectancy of the general population statistician Stanley Kranczer said in a news release. The likelihood Hal a typical newly mar ried couple would live another half Cen Tury in 1900-02 was 108 per 1,000, while today s average Bride and Groom have a j50 per 1,000 Chance of living that Long according 10 the report. The median age of 23 far today s first Lime brides is a record High while the median age of today s Groom is 25 and fas approaching the High of 26 recorded in 1900, the report says. The likelihood of joint survival for the Neil 50 years is greater for Young couples and decreases rapidly when couples marry Al an older age according to the report. Chances Ere 419 per 1,000 for Bride and Broom of age 20 330 per 1,000 when both Are 25 and 1 ski pet 1.000 at age to
