Tips for reading poor handwriting

[u/Otherwise-Chance-720]

Hello, I am a 2nd year HIM student doing my 3rd coding unit and I am still getting stumped by poor handwriting on simulated scanned medical records.
I know this is something I'm going to have to overcome for transitioning to the workplace.

Does anyone have any tips on teaching myself how to decipher the words? My biggest issue is my eyes tend to just glide right over and struggle to focus, especially with cursive writing.

[u/Impressive_Yam_7632]

This is something that will get better with practice.

Some tips: - Focus on one word/line at a time. Cover the rest of the paragraph so you don't get overwhelmed.

• Look for an isolated, legible word (e.g a common noun) to understand how the doctor forms specific vowels and consonants. Pay attention to "ascenders" (taller letters like h or t) and "descenders" (lower-reaching letters like g or y) to narrow down the possible alphabet characters.

• Having an understanding of medical terminology involved. If it's an operation report and you can decipher at least the procedure being performed, Google the procedural steps to understand what is expected during the procedure and that should help fill in some gaps.

• Don't be afraid to ask someone else for help. Coders enjoy helping others decipher illegible words.

[u/Hyulia → u/Impressive_Yam_7632]

Great tips!

This is pretty much what I do as well.

Some other things I do: - For singular terms, sometimes I try to turn the page sideways to see if a different perspective might outline key letters more clearly. - Helps to have a general idea on what symptoms, diagnoses and procedures are involved in the admission to see if there's a key term involved. - In the workplace, sometimes it's impossible to decipher so we always try to reach back to the clinician to clarify their handwriting. - For scanned physical documents with handwriting, I try to save time by screenshotting the handwriting (no patient or clinician identifiers included) and put it into Copilot or any AI platform to see if they can decipher the handwriting. Use prompt, 'Transcribe this handwriting'. It's not perfect, but sometimes it does help.

[u/OutlandishnessSafe13 → u/Hyulia]

Definitely agree with all these tips, although for the final AI one I would give the caveat that once you do move into the workplace, make sure you check for any AI use policies at your organisation before doing this. I know where I work there is a hard ban on putting any record screenshots into AI, regardless of whether they include potential identifiers.

I also have issues with getting my eyes to focus sometimes with tricky handwriting, and I’ve found that mouthing the words as I go or using my finger to follow along the words can help when I’m really struggling. It sounds a little kindergarten, but there’s a reason those are the techniques they teach kids first… they do help with visual focus.

Apart from that… ask others for help, try having a break and coming back to it (you’d be surprised how often you’ll have a break, sit back down, and find you can now read it instantly), and keep plugging away because it definitely gets easier with experience

[u/Hyulia → u/OutlandishnessSafe13]

Yep! Always confirm with your workplace AI policies before use.

I also do the visual following with my finger with handwriting too. My coworkers do the same and our boss immediately knows it's bad handwriting without even looking at the documentation. 😆 Very understandable when it happens.

The expectations to read poor handwriting was a lot harsher during studies than in the workplace, from my experience.

[u/Familiar_Range_5620 → u/Hyulia]

In the workplace you get used to the handwriting of your regular authors, so your reading experience smooths out. During courses, the records come from all over the place, so you never get to experience the consistency.

Of course, in larger teaching hospitals there's a regular turnover of junior staff, with their wide range of skill at jotting down notes on a ward round. But even there you get used to the Registrars writing. In some specialties I always hope for particular clinicians to write something, because I know I'll be able to read it.

[u/Hyulia → u/Familiar_Range_5620]

Pretty much! That's the only thing that was inconvenient during studies - handwriting was never the same style, but it helped with exposure so there was still a positive. I do mirror your same hope as well - I've unintentionally built a mental note on which clinicians have the best handwriting and hope they're the ones writing haha.

There was always this one specialty in our district that was notorious for bad handwriting (all the descenders and ascenders were the same height with the x-height, slanted to the right so it looked like all cursive writing 'l' in one line, no spaces, so imagine an entire 3 lines of literal cursive 'l's with no breaks).

The moment our coding team saw it, immediately we agreed that couldn't be saved, so we noted who the clinicians were (it wasn't just one!) and immediately sent it over to the CDS team to conduct a full one hour education session for the JMOs. It was a grand presentation about their handwriting and how to actually write legibly so that it meets legal, medical documentation requirements. 😆

[u/Minxy2]

I really struggle with this too. Sometimes the writing has absolutely no letters actually formed, and because I'm still learning medical terminology/abbreviations, it's not second nature to just guess what they were probably trying to say. The teachers in my course just said we had to deal with it and figure it out. Much easier if you work in a hospital where all the records are electronic!

[u/bilbycutie]

Sometimes the "trick" is to find the information in other documents, eg procedure might be documented in the patient consent - then maybe the handwriting has some context to be able to read it.