Prescription Writing 1971

Abstract

To the Editor.— A hundred years ago, as is apparent in Fig 1, the individual prescription ordered a multiplicity of drugs, and was compounded in a neighborhood drug store. Today, a prescription is often fractionated into two to eight separate drug orders. Fractionation into individual drug orders has resulted in an increased burden of paper work, in that the physician must write his name, the date, and the patient's name many times for one therapeutic regimen. The mushrooming lists of useful available drugs have added further to the number of prescriptions, and to the paper work. To meet medicolegal requirements, the physician must next write all the drugs again into his office records. Because of the responsibility, these are duties he cannot easily delegate. A common cause of drug-induced death over many years has been cardiac arrhythmias in patients given digitalis, resulting from low potassium states secondary to diuretic therapy.