Learn some of the most commonly used medical prescription abbreviations used in the eye doctor’s office!
In some ocular professions, it is a requirement to know tons of medical abbreviations. Some medical professions require more knowledge than others, however, for the most part, all – including ocular professions – need to know more than just a few.
There are many reasons for having to learn very specific abbreviations as they assist in record keeping at in a very fast paced medical world. Most of the time, diagnoses are very long and doctor dictations can be even longer, therefore, knowing a sort of short hand for it all is a requirement. For example, a scribe in a doctor’s office generally must write down all important information while in the room with the Ophthalmologist. This written information isn’t anything in general by any means, but the very detailed treatment, words and explanations that the doctor is doing and giving to the patient. A word such as Keratoconjunctivitis sicca may be spoken in a long sentence with another huge medial diagnosis, and the scribe doesn’t have the time to scribble down every single letter in such lengthy words. Instead, keratoconjunctivitis sicca would be written in short as K-Sicca. Simple.
Medical abbreviations and symbols are fairly universal, therefore, if you travel from the south to the north of America, well, things don’t change. Therefore, it is best to learn them as if working anywhere in the healthcare professions, one will be sure to come across these short, yet meaningful, ways of written expression.
Some common to the ocular world are:
OD right eye
OS left eye
OU both eyes
Rx prescription
ung ointment
Sol solution
bid twice a day
tid three times a day
qid four times a day
qh every hour
prn as needed
hs at bedtime
gtt drops
qqh four times a day
po by mouth
The abbreviations are not diagnoses but are used mostly in prescriptions that go along with treatments. Now that one can see how medical professions make sense of what is written, it really isn’t so Greek after all!
