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( Medical prescription)
A prescription (?) is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other qualified healthcare practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient. [1] Prescriptions may include orders to be performed by a patient, caretaker, nurse, pharmacist or other therapist. Prescriptions are often written, though they may be typed into a computerized physician order entry system or issued verbally to the patient, a nurse, a pharmacist or other therapist. Prescriptions have legal implications, as they may indicate that the prescriber takes responsibility for the clinical care of the patient and in particular for monitoring efficacy and safety. Prescriptions are either entered into a Computerized Physician Order Entry system, handwritten on preprinted prescription forms that are assembled into pads, or alternatively printed onto similar forms using a computer printer. Preprinted on the form is text that identifies the document as a prescription, the name and address of the prescribing provider and any other legal requirement such as a registration number (e.g. DEA Number in the United States). Unique for each prescription is the name of the patient. In the United Kingdom the patient's name and address must also be recorded. Each prescription is dated and some jurisdictions may place a time limit on the prescription[1]. There is the specific "recipe" of the medication and the directions for taking it. Finally there is the doctor's signature. The symbol "Rx" meaning "prescription" is a transliteration of a symbol resembling a capital R with a cross on the diagonal (?). There are various theories about the origin of this symbol - some note its similarity to the Eye of Horus[citation needed], others to the ancient symbol for Jupiter[citation needed], both gods whose protection may have been sought in medical contexts. Alternatively, it may be intended as an abbreviation of the Latin "recipe"[citation needed], the imperative form of "recipere", "to take"[2], and it is quite possible that more than one of these factors influenced its form. Literally, "Recipe" means simply "Take...." and when a doctor writes a prescription beginning with "Rx", he or she is completing the command. This was probably originally directed at the pharmacist who needed to take a certain amount of each ingredient to compound the medicine, rather than at the patient who must "take" the medicine, in the sense of consuming it.
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