Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Physicians' "verbal orders": who may authenticate them?

It probably isn't worth fighting this fight, so I won't, but I have to note in passing that all physicians' orders are verbal orders as long as they used words in some form or another (either written or oral), which pretty much includes everything except body language. (See, e.g., Columbia Guide to Standard American English.) But, by long-standing practice, "verbal orders" is the established