I vividly remember my first day in outpatient clinic as an intern more than 30 years ago, when my patient told me they needed refills for all their medications. In his incredibly thick paper chart was a list of medications, handwritten, some partially crossed out, others duplicated. We went through them and figured out what he was actually taking and needed. There were also a couple new medications he needed based on his visit that day.
I presented the patient's case to the supervising attending and told her about the medications. She handed me a thick prescription pad and said, "Fill them all out and bring them back to me to sign." It took me a couple tries since I'd never written a prescription before, but eventually they were all ready. I then gave them to the patient.
This whole process added another 15-20 minutes to our visit. So, by the end of the day, that very first day, I was several hours behind, and don't think I've ever caught up.
I remember another patient I saw in clinic during my residency who came to see us about overwhelming fatigue. He brought in all his prescription bottles, one of which had been filled at the pharmacy as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) 50 mg twice a day. But the handwritten scrawled prescription he had gotten, which we recovered from the hospital pharmacy, was for Benazepril 50 mg twice daily.
