We ask if rapid discontinuations of prescription-orders–where physicians stop their orders within 2 hours–would be an expedient proxy for prescribing errors? To study this we analyzed CPOE-system medication orders entered and then discontinued within 2 hours. We investigated these phenomena in real time via interviews with corresponding ordering physicians. Each order was also independently rev...

All methods of identifying medication prescribing errors are fraught with inaccuracies and systematic bias. A systematic, efficient, and inexpensive way of measuring and quantifying prescribing errors would be a useful step for reducing them. We ask if rapid discontinuations of prescription-orders--where physicians stop their orders within 2 hours--would be an expedient proxy for prescribing er...

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) addresses critical functions in healthcare systems. As the name clearly indicates, these systems focus on order entry. With regard to medication orders, such systems generally force physicians to enter exhaustively documented orders. But a cognitive analysis of the physician's medication ordering task shows that order entry is the last (and least) impor...

Medical alerts in CPOE are overridden in most cases. The need for alerting systems that are better adapted to physicians' needs and work processes is recognized. Our study aims to shed some light on how medical alerts are used and how they are integrated in the work process. Work analysis and interviews resulted in a hierarchical task analysis of prescription during ward rounds at the Universit...

Insurance denials delay payments for tests to medical institutions and can decrease patient satisfaction due to unexpected billing. Our institution utilizes an ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) for routine clinical care that includes computerized physician order entry (CPOE). At our institution as well as others, considerable cost is associated with inappropriate diagnostic coding of ne...

BACKGROUND Application of user-centred design principles to Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems may improve task efficiency, usability or safety, but there is limited evaluative research of its impact on CPOE systems. OBJECTIVE We evaluated the task efficiency, usability, and safety of three order set formats: our hospital's planned CPOE order sets (CPOE Test), computer order set...

What Are Computerized Provider Order Entry With Clinical Decision Support Systems? Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) refers to any system in which clinicians directly enter orders for medications, tests, or procedures into an electronic system, which then transmits the order directly to the recipient responsible for carrying out the order (e.g., the pharmacy, laboratory, or radiology dep...

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) has been shown to improve quality, and to reduce resource utilization, but most available data suggest that it takes longer to enter orders using CPOE. We had previously implemented a CPOE system, and elected to evaluate its impact on physician time in the new setting. To do this, we performed a prospective study using random reminder methodology. Key f...