The Effect of Adjustment Level on the Relationship between CDSS and Efficiency

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) have the potential to help physicians overcome their own limitations in terms of information processing and decision making to create an outcome that is most beneficial to patients. While the impacts of CDSS have been shown to increase efficiency in a number of clinical trials, the results of these trials is varied and the manner in which CDSS affects outcomes is still not well understood. This study aims to increase the body of knowledge regarding factors that may influence the impact that a CDSS has on efficiency. The study uses efficiency measures made available by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to study the relationship that CDSS has on these measures. The focus of this study is the extent to which the level of adjustment required by a physician to alter choices impacts the effectiveness of CDSS on efficiency. Results show that CDSS has a greater impact on decisions that require lower levels of adjustment than on those that require higher levels of adjustment.