Legal Ink Colours In Uk And Us

[haemdoc]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum.I would like to know whether there are any restrictions on ink colours while writing on office documents.

I am a doctor and documents would include case notes etc.

 

Thanks is advance

Krish

[Blade Runner]

I would use blue, black, or blue black, and something that won't wash away or become illegible if it got wet.

Edited October 4, 2009 by jeen

[mackthepen]

The requirements for medical records in the UK are that they should be photocopiable - I use Noodler's La Reine Mauve or Prime of the Commons without any problems. I saw a consultant using turquoise about a fortnight ago. There seems to be a convention that pharmacists write in green, so I suppose you should maybe avoid that.

 

Andrew

[DrPJM1]

I use blue, black, blue/black, brown and dark green inks at my office.

[PJohnP]

Back in the 'seventies, some US regulatory agencies firmly expected the use of blue or a lighter blue-black to address possible photocopying of documents. As time has passed, this seems to have been relaxed somewhat, probably as a result of the availability of colour photocopies and electronic scanning/transmissions.

 

I do know that some doctors here have been using non-black colours for prescriptions and orders, mostly, one would suppose, to address issues with drug abuse.

 

I've personally signed a significant number of legal documents (non-medical in my case) with a fair variety of colours over the last twenty years. I've been more careful to use the permanent/bulletproof inks in recent years since a cheque of mine was soaked and lost all information (fortunately with a friend), but I've never hit a problem with ink colour not being accepted. That said, I'm not attempting to sign legal documents in brilliant red, orange, or yellow. About the wildest I've used is Noodler's Coral Sea or perhaps a mix that I have for a midnight-green colour.

 

Companies, as has been discussed in a number of other threads, can set internal requirements for ink colours, some which make perfect sense, and others making no sense at all. In my company, I use a variety of colours for editing, commentary, or for emphasis as I see fit, but then, it's my company. <wry crooked smile>

 

 

 

 

John P.

[Doc H]

No restrictions at our hospital, except for HR which for some reason known only to them requires blue ink on all their original documents . From a medicolegal standpoint, any ink that is phocopy-able should work fine, and in fact an ink other than black is desirable to ensure an original document; it's true color copiers are much advanced, but the rendering from a color copier is easily detectable on close examination. I use, depending on the day or the pen, blue, blue-black, green, brown or dark red, and I expect any of them are legally acceptable.

[lapis]

Use a good black or blue-black from Noodler's (most of which are very-to-extremely waterproof)

and/or

Montblanc's blue-black, which -- since it has a ferro-gallic content -- necessitates that your pen can handle this.

 

Mike

[haemdoc]

Dear All

Thanks to all who gave me their thoughts about ink colours. Any ideas whether Yard O Led turquoise is permanent or not?

Many thanks

Krish

[OtterNZ]

I believe the Yard-O-Led turquoise is the same ink as Diamine turquoise, which isn't waterproof.

[Ondina]

In the EU and, specifically, in the UK, the only ink to be used for legal & archival purposes is Registrar's Ink ( ferrogalic based ink, Diamine sells its own, as well as some other brands).. You may want to check with your hospital's Archivist if your notes on charts, medical history, etc. have to comply to the present legislation or will be digitalized only. Most hospitals I know use a mixed system, in which the originals of certain written medical documents must be kept for a good number of years even if scanned and stored in at least 3 different servers. Your Hospital administrator should know who to address the question to.

[Defacto]

A friend of mine who is a doctor uses a burgundy because he can tell which notes in patients files are his while all others use blue or black (mostly ballpoint ink)

When I worked as a nurse at the hospital I used Blue (for day shift) Red (for evening) and Green (for nightshift) fountainpen ink. The colours where set in that order so you knew during which shift things had taken place. All my colleagues used a ballpoint but I just had three different parker vector fountainpens.

[Chris]

Registrar's ink is required for the registering of births, deaths and marriages in the UK, but the beautiful hand-written ledgers are being replaced with souless computerised stuff as we speak! When you visited the registrar, they provided the pen and ink you must use. Elsewhere, banks and lawyers are less fussy and no one has questioned my use of (admittedly sombre) FP ink in blues, blue-black or black.

 

I was in the queue at the passport office once when I hear a voice say very distinctly "What part of 'Use blue or black ink' do you not understand?" followed by the sound of ripping paper as a frustrated official consigned an application form completed in red ink to the wastepaper basket. "Next!"

 

So, if it says something specific on an official form, best follow the instructions!

 

Chris

[Will]

There is a consultant at Gt Ormond St who uses blue in what looks like his Yard O led pen (looks like he uses Quink or Waterman blue). Presumably no-one gives him too much grief about it.

[oldstoat]

I used black, mostly Quink for years in hospital and GP notes, with never a query from the powers that be. These days I tend to use Noodler Prime of the Commons and Polar Blue for prescriptions and certificates ( especially with the dodgier punters patients., who might want to alter their dihydrocodeine from 100 tabs to 1000 or change their return to work date on the Med 3 form). I find that using a broad italic nib also prevents forgery. One of my colleagues in the practice next door was asked by the police to sign everything in a distictive ink after a prescrption pad was stolen- he used a brown Diamine ink as I recall.

[stevo]

When magnified, the ink should have micro-text all through it that says "this is a copy". Does your ink do this?

 

S

[drbalajipsy]

Is there any official list of allowed and disallowed ink colours list for use in medical records?

[Bigeddie]

I know certain inks have particular purposes, but that seems to depend on the trust or hospital.

 

Talking to my partner who's a doctor in the West Midlands, UK; Doctors and nurses write in blue or black (or presumably blue-black) and are told the ink must be permanent - this seems to mean anything other than a pencil. Pharmacy writes in green and anyone can write in red but only for allergies. The main factor seems to be that notes have to be photocopy friendly.

 

From my days working in social care, it would be nice if there was one colour system across all organizations.

 

I hope my medical notes aren't photo copied too much!

[nanahcub]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum.I would like to know whether there are any restrictions on ink colours while writing on office documents.

I am a doctor and documents would include case notes etc.

 

Thanks is advance

Krish

 

I suppose my first question should be 'what country are you working in?'

 

Different countries may have different regulations/requirements. In the UK, the best thing to do would be to contact the BMA - they will have a department somewhere which will be able to answer that. Other countries will have an equuivalent organisation. I would imagine the answer will generally be that the colour is not so much of an issue as permanence. You could also ask the practice manager whether they have a policy.

 

It also depends where you work. A general practice where you sit safely writing at your desk will be very differnt to a hospital doctor (think about medical notes left left by a bedside where visitors are clumsily pouring the patient a glass of water). Regardless of other factors, the ink will probably need to be waterproof. Most inks are still going to readable after 10 years (which is probably longer than the useful life of medical notes). I doubt that you need achivable quality inks, otherwise you would already have been made aware of it, and hospitals/medical practices would have cupboards containing specific inks, rather than standard 10p ballpens.

 

I'm not a doctor, but for my work (where there is no policy of any sort) I mainly use dark green (Diamine Green Black - probably not waterproof enough for you). This is partly because I like it, partly because it is dark enough to photocopy clearly and I can easily see at a glance what I have written because no one else has anything similar. Somebody above mentioned a doctor using bugundy for this reason - makes his/her own comments stand out. I think that is a very good idea. Another issue (also mentioned above) is that you don't want prescriptions easily forged, so the more unusual the colour, the harder it is for a forger to match the colour. A colour that is dark enough to photocopy, but light enough to look clearly different on a photocopy (one that copies grey rather than black) would be good, too.

 

So lots of things to consider.

 

• Check whether there is any regulation or policy where you are working (probably isn't, but check)
• Choose a colour that you like
• Choose something with permanence/waterproof qualities
• Choose a colour that you like
• Choose something a little different to the normal colours (not black or blue) to stand out and to make forgery more difficult
• Choose a colour that you like (I know I already said that twice, but I'm saying it again because asssuming it fits the other criteria, it is the ost important)

 

 

 

[ravantra]

"i fought the law and the law won…"

 

 

I use whatever I happen to have in my pen(s) until told not to. That has only happened once and quickly tossed a <horror> ballpoint to sign with.

[Nokin]

Most of the companies I deal with ask for black ink for scanning purposes - they only scan in 'black and white'. They don't worry about archival inks because they very quickly destroy the originals and rely on the electronic versions. It costs them too much to permanently store the physical documents!