# Doctor's handwriting on prescriptions: secret code? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctors-handwriting-on-prescriptions-secret-code/69842 "2001-06-23T02:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctors-handwriting-on-prescriptions-secret-code/69842/1 "2001-06-23T02:29:50Z")
Doctors’ handwriting on prescriptions is notoriously bad. Sometimes they fill out the patient’s name and the drug name with what looks like a scribble. For something as important as a prescription, you would think legibility would be important. The really weird thing is that the pharmacies can actually read the squiggles. This leads me to wonder: maybe it’s actually secret code that only the doctor and pharmacist understand. That way an ordinary person couldn’t walk into a drugstore with a fake prescription, because he wouldn’t know the secret codes. I know this sounds off-the-wall, but what other explanation is there as to how the pharmacy can read the prescriptions? ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2001, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctors-handwriting-on-prescriptions-secret-code/69842/2 "2001-06-23T02:44:08Z")
What a wonderful world we live in, to have a search feature. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=62933](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=62933) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43694](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43694)