Today's societal frustration: signatures

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A pharmacist actually complained about a dentist's signature. Said it's too 'squiggly', could have been done by anyone and/or it wasn't in the correct box one cm below. Should I laugh or cry? Since when were signatures ever not 'squiggly'? I thought that was universally undisputed. It's all some vague line... wtf.

Must of looked like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's old signature(a literally squiggly line lol) for a pharmacist to complain about it, doctors are not known for their penmanship. Signature's don't need to be clear tho, they just need to be uniquely yours.

I've had the exact same thing happen. The pharmacist refused to process the prescription, and told me to get another one from the doctor. But I think she was quite right to do so. I was annoyed with the doctor, not the pharmacist.

Doctors and other 'professionals' may well be very busy people, but how difficult is it really to write one's name legibly? I think it's a matter of courtesy, among other things. When I sign my name on a letter, even though my signature's very legible compared to many people's, I always print my name in capital letters below, just so there's no possibility of a problem arising.

Did you get your drugs without having to go and get the prescription re-done? Did the pharmacist ask you to do anything about this signature problem? Was the prescription for anything particularly dangerous? Would it have been awkward for you get another prescription with a "better" signature on it?

I thought signatures didn't have to be legible. Many people use a signature that is totally illegible and looks like just messy lines. The only case where a signature may not be accepted is where it doesn't look like the original signature that it is compared against.

I had no option but to get the prescription rewritten in order to get my drug - a steroid ointment, not especially dangerous. As I recall, I handed the defective prescription form to the doctor's receptionist and asked for a replacement, which was duly provided. At the same time I expressed some dissatisfaction with the slipshod way the prescription had been written, but it was all 'water off a duck's back' to her.


My main concern was, and is, the somewhat contemptuous attitude some doctors and other 'professionals' display when dealing with the public, which shows up in such apparently insignificant exchanges as this. If they can't be bothered to even sign their names properly, isn't it quite likely that they'll be negligent in other ways? I wonder how many deaths or serious problems occur in hospitals as a result of patients being given the wrong dosages of drugs (or even the wrong drugs) because of doctors' illegible writing? Quite a few more than we ever get to hear about, I'd bet.

Well, I remember in the days when they wrote the entire prescription by hand, it was usually illegible to the patient, which didn't always inspire confidence, but the pharmacists were used to the doctor's scrawl and actually knew what it meant. I always got the right medicine.

Basically doctors are very often in a tearing hurry and I don't think a crappy signature is an indication of an otherwise crappy service, though I'm not saying doctors always do their job as well as they'd like you to believe.

The drug wasn't all that dangerous, and I presume it wasn't particularly convenient for you to get it renewed, so under those circumstances I think the pharmacist was being rather a butt about it. It's not as if it's common for people to steal blank prescription forms and self-prescribe steroid ointment. So I can't see there would have been any harm in just handing over the stuff. I also think it's selfish of them to leave the work of rectifying the doctor's "mistake" on your shoulders. They could have given you the ointment and later complained to the doctor themselves without involving you.

Emotionally I can relate well to your wish for more neatness in the world, but if a thing is functional, I think that's the most important thing.

These days all Rx should have electronic confirmation, instead of just the old fashioned scrap pf paper that could be forged, lost or stolen.