Does an education intervention improve physician signature legibility? Pilot study of a prospective chart review.

Illegible physician signatures in patient records can lead to inaccurate documentation, improper billing, and potential legal issues. Many studies in the current literature address legibility of prescriptions and medication orders; however, few focus on legibility of physicians' signatures. The purpose of the present quality improvement survey was to evaluate physician signature legibility on patient charts at the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Adult Internal Medicine Clinic.