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A prescription for death: Does doctors' illegible handwriting kill more than 7,000 patients annually? Is drinking alcohol a good cold cure? — The Straight Dope

Revision cd94b11c-1bd4-4605-aeeb-3aa355cd1f8d · 9/25/2026, 6:13:14 PM UTC
Key
adams-straightdope-handwriting-deaths
Authors
Adams, Cecil
Type
webpage
Container
The Straight Dope
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  "type": "webpage",
  "title": "A prescription for death: Does doctors' illegible handwriting kill more than 7,000 patients annually? Is drinking alcohol a good cold cure?",
  "author": [
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      "given": "Cecil",
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Claims

  1. The widely repeated figure of 7,000 annual US deaths from doctors' handwriting actually refers to deaths from all medication errors of any kind, traced to a 1998 Lancet paper via Institute of Medicine reports.
    "7,000 U.S. deaths result from all medication-related errors of any sort, inside and outside hospitals, and not just those tied to poor penmanship"
    Quote language: en
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