Same Systems, Different Outcomes

A survey of ambulance clinicians' perceptions of recording and communicating patient information electronically

Objective:

Ambulance services are evolving from use of paper-based recording of patient information to electronic platforms and the impact of this change has yet to be fully explored. The aim of this study is to explore how the introduction of a system permitting electronic information capture and its subsequent sharing were perceived by the ambulance clinicians using it.

Methods:

An online questionnaire was designed based upon the technology acceptance model and distributed throughout one ambulance service in the south east of England. Closed-ended questions with Likert scales were used to collect data from patient-facing staff who use an online community falls and diabetic referral platform or an electronic messaging system to update GPs following a patient encounter.

Results:

There were 273 responses from ambulance clinicians. Most participants agreed that they used tablet computers and smartphones to make their life easier (85% and 86%, respectively). Most participants felt that referring patients to a community falls or diabetic team electronically was an efficient use of their time (81% and 81%, respectively) and many believed that these systems improved the communication of confidential patient information. GP summaries were perceived as increasing time spent on scene but most participants (89%) believed they enabled collaborative working. Overall, collecting and sharing patient information electronically was perceived by most participants as beneficial to their practice.

Conclusion:

In this study, the ability to electronically refer patients to community services and share patient encounters with the GP was predominantly perceived as both safe for patients and an effective use of the participants’ clinical time. However, there is often still a need to communicate to GPs in real time, demonstrating that technology could complement, rather than replace, how clinicians communicate.

Impact of Information Technology-Based Interventions for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Glycemic Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Information technology-based interventions are increasingly being used to manage health care. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding whether these interventions improve outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials, assessing the impact of information technology on changes in the levels of hemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) and mapping the interventions with chronic care model (CCM) elements.

METHODS

Electronic databases PubMed and EMBASE were searched to identify relevant studies that were published up until July 2016, a method that was supplemented by identifying articles from the references of the articles already selected using the electronic search tools. The study search and selection were performed by independent reviewers. Of the 1082 articles retrieved, 32 trials (focusing on a total of 40,454 patients) were included. A random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled results.

RESULTS

Information technology-based interventions were associated with a statistically significant reduction in HbA_1c levels (mean difference -0.33%, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.26, P<.001). Studies focusing on electronic self-management systems demonstrated the largest reduction in HbA_1c (0.50%), followed by those with electronic medical records (0.17%), an electronic decision support system (0.15%), and a diabetes registry (0.05%). In addition, the more CCM-incorporated the information technology-based interventions were, the more improvements there were in HbA_1c levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Information technology strategies combined with the other elements of chronic care models are associated with improved glycemic control in people with diabetes. No clinically relevant impact was observed on low-density lipoprotein levels and blood pressure, but there was evidence that the cost of care was lower.

Does extended CPOE use reduce patient length of stay?

OBJECTIVE

This study compares use of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and related clinical systems (i.e., extended CPOE) across 796 clinical teams caring for five distinct patient conditions. Our focus is the relationship between clinical teams' extended CPOE use and extent of prolonged stay (EPS), defined as the deviation in patients' observed length of stay from expected risk-adjusted length of stay.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using archival data from two affiliated hospitals in the Southeastern United States, we focused on five different patient conditions of varying mortality risk (vaginal birth, knee/hip replacement, cardiovascular surgery, organ transplant and pneumonia). For each patient, we (1) differentiated between the following three types of care team members-Responsible physician, Core team (excluding the responsible physician), and Support team, (2) created a composite of CPOE orders, documentation entries, patient record lookups, order set adherence, alert acknowledgement, and progress note entries to assess the deep structure use (DSU) of CPOE by the three types of members in the patients' care team, and (3) aggregated DSU of CPOE across all three types of care team members to calculate Total team DSU.

RESULTS

Teams with higher Total team DSU of CPOE had lower EPS for all five patient conditions. Patients of Core teams with higher DSU of CPOE had lower EPS in all conditions except organ transplant, comprising 93% of the patients studied. Higher DSU of CPOE by all three clinician types significantly reduced EPS for vaginal birth and knee/hip replacement, whereas higher DSU by two of the three types of care team members significantly reduced EPS for cardiovascular surgery and pneumonia.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that a clinician team that uses CPOE in a comprehensive manner is better informed enabling the team to coordinate care more effectively, resulting in reduced EPS.

Implementing electronic health records in hospitals: a systematic literature review

BACKGROUND

The literature on implementing Electronic Health Records (EHR) in hospitals is very diverse. The objective of this study is to create an overview of the existing literature on EHR implementation in hospitals and to identify generally applicable findings and lessons for implementers.

METHODS

A systematic literature review of empirical research on EHR implementation was conducted. Databases used included Web of Knowledge, EBSCO, and Cochrane Library. Relevant references in the selected articles were also analyzed. Search terms included Electronic Health Record (and synonyms), implementation, and hospital (and synonyms). Articles had to meet the following requirements: (1) written in English, (2) full text available online, (3) based on primary empirical data, (4) focused on hospital-wide EHR implementation, and (5) satisfying established quality criteria.

RESULTS

Of the 364 initially identified articles, this study analyzes the 21 articles that met the requirements. From these articles, 19 interventions were identified that are generally applicable and these were placed in a framework consisting of the following three interacting dimensions: (1) EHR context, (2) EHR content, and (3) EHR implementation process.

CONCLUSIONS

Although EHR systems are anticipated as having positive effects on the performance of hospitals, their implementation is a complex undertaking. This systematic review reveals reasons for this complexity and presents a framework of 19 interventions that can help overcome typical problems in EHR implementation. This framework can function as a reference for implementers in developing effective EHR implementation strategies for hospitals.

Citation analysis of the prognosis of Haux et al. for the year 2013

In 2002, Haux, Ammenwerth, Herzog, and Knaup published a prognosis about health care in the information society. In contrast to other prognoses, they underpinned their 30 theses with 71 quantitative statements that could be easily checked. A citation analysis was performed to assess the perception of this work in the medical informatics community. The ISI Web of Science was used for the citation search. From 55 hits, 38 articles were finally included in the metadata analysis, 33 articles in the qualitative analysis. The most prominent statement citing the paper of Haux et al. was identified in each article, divided into statements about the present and those about the future. Each statement was tagged with one keyword out of a convenient list. One article provided a statement about the present and the future. Most of the references were published in English as journal articles between 2006 and 2009. The majority of the first authors were from Europe. Twenty-two articles offered a statement about the present, 12 about the future. There was a shift from the present emphasis on electronic medical records and information and communication technologies to challenges in the future because of an aging population and the advent of personalized medicine. The citing papers seemed to be representative of medical informatics in terms of journals and the authors' countries of origin. The statements relating the citing literature with the paper of Haux et al. corresponded well with current notions about medical informatics. However, there was no debate about the concrete theses and prognoses offered in the cited paper. Therefore, the medical informatics community needs to rethink its own citation strategy.

Effects of electronic emergency-department whiteboards on clinicians' time distribution and mental workload

Whiteboards are a central tool at emergency departments. We investigate how the substitution of electronic for dry-erase whiteboards affects emergency department clinicians' mental workload and distribution of their time. With the electronic whiteboard, physicians and nurses spend more of their time in the work areas where other clinicians are present and whiteboard information is permanently displayed, and less in the patient rooms. Main reasons for these changes appear to be that the electronic whiteboard facilitates better timeouts and handovers. Physicians and nurses are, however, in the patient rooms for longer periods at a time, suggesting a more focused patient contact. The physicians' mental workload has increased during timeouts, whereas the nurses' mental workload has decreased at the start of shifts when they form an overview of the emergency department. Finally, the secretaries, but neither physicians nor nurses, access whiteboard information on computers other than the permanent displays.

Clinical communication in diagnostic imaging studies: mixed-method study of pre- and post-implementation of a hospital information system

OBJECTIVE

To examine how and why the quality of clinical communication between radiologists and referring physicians was changed in the inpatient imaging process after implementation of a hospital information system (HIS).

METHODS

A mixed-method study of the chest X-ray (CXR) requests and reports, and their involved processes within a pre- and post-HIS implementation setting.

RESULTS

Documentation of patient age, patient ward, and name and signature of requesting physician decreased significantly in post-HIS CXR requests (P<0.05). However, documentation of requested position and technique increased significantly (P<0.05). In post-HIS CXR reports, documentation of patient age, patient chart number, urgent/normal status of requisition, position and technique of CXR, name of referring physician, and date of request were increased significantly (P<0.05). However, documentation of discussion for important findings was decreased significantly (P<0.05). The mean number of words in the body text of post-HIS reports was increased significantly (18.65 vs. 16.3, P = 0.00).Our qualitative findings highlighted that involving nursing and radiology staff in the communication loop between physicians and radiologists after the implementation resulted in extra steps in the workflow and more workload for them. To cope with the new workload, they adopted different workarounds that could explain the results seen in the quantitative study.

CONCLUSION

The HIS improved communication of administrative and identification information but did not improve communication of clinically relevant information. The reason was traced to the complications that the inappropriate implementation of the system brought to clinical workflow and communication loop.

Work-practice changes associated with an electronic emergency department whiteboard

Electronic whiteboards are introduced at emergency departments (EDs) to improve work practices. This study investigates whether the time physicians and nurses at an ED spend in patient rooms versus at the control desk increases after the introduction of an electronic whiteboard. After using this whiteboard for four months nurses, but not physicians, spend more of their time with the patients. With the electronic whiteboard, nurses spend 28% of their time in patient rooms and physicians 20%. Importantly, the changes facilitated by the electronic whiteboard are also dependent on implementation issues, existing work practices and the clinicians' experience. Another change in the work practices is distributed access to whiteboard information from the computers in patient rooms. A decrease in the mental workload of the coordinating nurse was envisaged but has not emerged. Achieving more changes appears to require an increase in whiteboard functionality and a firmer grip on the implementation process.

Using a sociotechnical framework to understand adaptations in health IT implementation

PURPOSE

When barcode medication administration (BCMA) is implemented nurses are required to integrate not only a new set of procedures or artifacts into everyday work, but also an orientation to medication safety itself that is sometimes at odds with their own. This paper describes how the nurses' orientation (the Practice Frame) can collide with the orientation that is represented by the technology and its implementation (the System Frame), resulting in adaptations at the individual and organization levels.

METHODS

The paper draws on two qualitative research studies that examined the implementation of BCMA in inpatient settings using observation and ethnographic fieldwork, content analysis of email communications, and interviews with healthcare professionals.

RESULTS

Two frames of reference are described: the System Frame and the Practice Frame. We found collisions of these frames that prompted adaptations at the individual and organization levels. The System Frame was less integrated and flexible than the Practice Frame, less able to account for all of the dimensions of everyday patient care to which medication administration is tied.

CONCLUSION

Collisions in frames during implementation of new technology result in adaptations at the individual and organization level that can have a variety of effects. We found adaptations to be a means of evolving both the work routines and the technology. Understanding the frames of clinical workers when new technology is being designed and implemented can inform changes to technology or organizational structure and policy that can preclude unproductive or unsafe adaptations.

Building a house on shifting sand: methodological considerations when evaluating the implementation and adoption of national electronic health record systems

BACKGROUND

A commitment to Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems now constitutes a core part of many governments' healthcare reform strategies. The resulting politically-initiated large-scale or national EHR endeavors are challenging because of their ambitious agendas of change, the scale of resources needed to make them work, the (relatively) short timescales set, and the large number of stakeholders involved, all of whom pursue somewhat different interests. These initiatives need to be evaluated to establish if they improve care and represent value for money.

METHODS

Critical reflections on these complexities in the light of experience of undertaking the first national, longitudinal, and sociotechnical evaluation of the implementation and adoption of England's National Health Service's Care Records Service (NHS CRS).

RESULTS/DISCUSSION

We advance two key arguments. First, national programs for EHR implementations are likely to take place in the shifting sands of evolving sociopolitical and sociotechnical and contexts, which are likely to shape them in significant ways. This poses challenges to conventional evaluation approaches which draw on a model of baseline operations → intervention → changed operations (outcome). Second, evaluation of such programs must account for this changing context by adapting to it. This requires careful and creative choice of ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions.

SUMMARY

New and significant challenges are faced in evaluating national EHR implementation endeavors. Based on experiences from this national evaluation of the implementation and adoption of the NHS CRS in England, we argue for an approach to these evaluations which moves away from seeing EHR systems as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects requiring an essentially outcome-centred assessment towards a more interpretive approach that reflects the situated and evolving nature of EHR seen within multiple specific settings and reflecting a constantly changing milieu of policies, strategies and software, with constant interactions across such boundaries.

Characteristics of CPOE systems and obstacles to implementation that physicians believe will affect adoption

BACKGROUND

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) has the potential to decrease medical errors and improve quality. Our health system plans to implement CPOE in response to the ARRA HITECH Act.

OBJECTIVES

To determine (A) physicians' projections of the most important characteristics of a CPOE system that will affect their willingness to adopt CPOE, and (B) the obstacles they foresee in adopting CPOE.

METHODS

All members of our health system's physician quality organization were invited to participate in a confidential survey.

RESULTS

Two hundred twenty-four of 549 (41%) recipients responded to the survey. Respondents ranked "disruption in my work routine" (72%) and "improve efficiency in placing orders" (63%) as the two most important characteristics that would affect their utilization of CPOE. They believed CPOE would enable orders to be placed more efficiently (3.3, sd = 1.2), carried out rapidly (3.4, sd = 0.9), and have fewer errors (3.7, sd = 0.9). The most commonly cited obstacles to CPOE implementation were: Efficiency-Inefficiency (23%), Hardware Availability (12.7%), Computer Restrictions (10.8%), Training (8.8%), Simplicity - Ease of Use (8.5%), and Physician Buy-in (8.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of physicians believed CPOE would lead to a reduction of medical errors and more efficient patient care. However, physicians are highly concerned with how CPOE will affect their own work efficiency.

Evaluating the medication process in the context of CPOE use: the significance of working around the system

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the problems experienced after implementing a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, their possible root causes, and the responses of providers in order to incorporate the system into daily workflow.

METHODS

A qualitative study in the medication-use process after implementation of a CPOE system in an academic hospital in The Netherlands. Data included 21 interviews with clinical end-users, paper-based and system-generated documents used daily in the process, and educational materials used to train users.

FINDINGS

The problems in the medication-use process included cognitive overload on physicians and nurses, unmet information needs, miscommunication of orders and ideas, problematic coordination of interrelated tasks between co-working professionals, a potentially faulty administration phase, and suboptimal monitoring of the medication plans. These problems were mainly rooted in the lack of mobile computer devices, the uneasy integration of coexisting electronic and paper-based systems, suboptimal usability of the system, and certain organizational factors with regard to procuring drugs affecting the technology use. Various types of workarounds were used to address the difficulties, including phone calls, taking multiple paper notes, issuing paper-based and verbal orders, double-checking, using other patients' procured drugs or another department's drug supply, and modifying and annotating the printed orders.

CONCLUSION

This study shows how providers are actively involved in working around the interruptions in workflow by bypassing the technology or adapting the work processes. Although certain workarounds help to maintain smooth workflow and/or to ensure patient safety, others may burden providers by necessitating extra time and effort and/or endangering patient safety. It is important that workarounds having a negative nature are recognized and discussed in order to find solutions to mitigate their effects.

Making sense of health information technology implementation: A qualitative study protocol

Background

Implementing new practices, such as health information technology (HIT), is often difficult due to the disruption of the highly coordinated, interdependent processes (e.g., information exchange, communication, relationships) of providing care in hospitals. Thus, HIT implementation may occur slowly as staff members observe and make sense of unexpected disruptions in care. As a critical organizational function, sensemaking, defined as the social process of searching for answers and meaning which drive action, leads to unified understanding, learning, and effective problem solving -- strategies that studies have linked to successful change. Project teamwork is a change strategy increasingly used by hospitals that facilitates sensemaking by providing a formal mechanism for team members to share ideas, construct the meaning of events, and take next actions.

Methods

In this longitudinal case study, we aim to examine project teams' sensemaking and action as the team prepares to implement new information technology in a tiertiary care hospital. Based on management and healthcare literature on HIT implementation and project teamwork, we chose sensemaking as an alternative to traditional models for understanding organizational change and teamwork. Our methods choices are derived from this conceptual framework. Data on project team interactions will be prospectively collected through direct observation and organizational document review. Through qualitative methods, we will identify sensemaking patterns and explore variation in sensemaking across teams. Participant demographics will be used to explore variation in sensemaking patterns.

Discussion

Outcomes of this research will be new knowledge about sensemaking patterns of project teams, such as: the antecedents and consequences of the ongoing, evolutionary, social process of implementing HIT; the internal and external factors that influence the project team, including team composition, team member interaction, and interaction between the project team and the larger organization; the ways in which internal and external factors influence project team processes; and the ways in which project team processes facilitate team task accomplishment. These findings will lead to new methods of implementing HIT in hospitals.

A Sociotechnical Approach to Evaluating the Impact of ICT on Clinical Care Environments

INTRODUCTION

Process-supporting information technology holds the potential to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and alter professional roles and responsibilities in a manner which allows improvement in the delivery of patient care. However, clashes between the model of health care work inscribed in these tools with the actual nature of work has resulted in staff resistance and decreased organisational uptake of ICT, as well as the facilitation of unexpected and negative effects in efficiency and patient safety. Sociotechnical theory provides a paradigm against which workflow and transfusion of ICT in healthcare could be better explored and understood.

DESIGN

This paper will conceptualise a formative, multi-method longitudinal evaluation process to explore the impact of ICT with an appreciation of the relationship between the social and technical systems within a clinical department.

METHOD

Departmental culture, including clinical work processes and communication patterns will be thoroughly explored before system implementation using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Findings will be compared with post implementation data, which will incorporate measurement of safety and workflow efficiency indicators.

DISCUSSION

Sociotechnical theory provides a paradigm against which workflow and transfusion of ICT in healthcare could be better explored and understood. However, sociotechnical and multimethod approaches to evaluation do not exist without criticism. Inherent in the protocol are limitations of sociotechnical theory and criticism of the multimethod approach; testing of the methodology in real clinical settings will serve to verify efficacy and refine the process.

Health IT success and failure: recommendations from literature and an AMIA workshop

With the United States joining other countries in national efforts to reap the many benefits that use of health information technology can bring for health care quality and savings, sobering reports recall the complexity and difficulties of implementing even smaller-scale systems. Despite best practice research that identified success factors for health information technology projects, a majority, in some sense, still fail. Similar problems plague a variety of different kinds of applications, and have done so for many years. Ten AMIA working groups sponsored a workshop at the AMIA Fall 2006 Symposium. It was entitled "Avoiding The F-Word: IT Project Morbidity, Mortality, and Immortality" and focused on this under-addressed problem. PARTICIPANTS discussed communication, workflow, and quality; the complexity of information technology undertakings; the need to integrate all aspects of projects, work environments, and regulatory and policy requirements; and the difficulty of getting all the parts and participants in harmony. While recognizing that there still are technical issues related to functionality and interoperability, discussion affirmed the emerging consensus that problems are due to sociological, cultural, and financial issues, and hence are more managerial than technical. Participants drew on lessons from experience and research in identifying important issues, action items, and recommendations to address the following: what "success" and "failure" mean, what contributes to making successful or unsuccessful systems, how to use failure as an enhanced learning opportunity for continued improvement, how system successes or failures should be studied, and what AMIA should do to enhance opportunities for successes. The workshop laid out a research agenda and recommended action items, reflecting the conviction that AMIA members and AMIA as an organization can take a leadership role to make projects more practical and likely to succeed in health care settings.

The impact of computerized provider order entry systems on inpatient clinical workflow: a literature review

Previous studies have shown the importance of workflow issues in the implementation of CPOE systems and patient safety practices. To understand the impact of CPOE on clinical workflow, we developed a conceptual framework and conducted a literature search for CPOE evaluations between 1990 and June 2007. Fifty-one publications were identified that disclosed mixed effects of CPOE systems. Among the frequently reported workflow advantages were the legible orders, remote accessibility of the systems, and the shorter order turnaround times. Among the frequently reported disadvantages were the time-consuming and problematic user-system interactions, and the enforcement of a predefined relationship between clinical tasks and between providers. Regarding the diversity of findings in the literature, we conclude that more multi-method research is needed to explore CPOE's multidimensional and collective impact on especially collaborative workflow.

Health-enabling technologies for pervasive health care: on services and ICT architecture paradigms

BACKGROUND

Progress in information and communication technologies (ICT) is providing new opportunities for pervasive health care services in aging societies.

OBJECTIVES

To identify starting points of health-enabling technologies for pervasive health care. To describe typical services of and contemporary ICT architecture paradigms for pervasive health care.

METHODS

Summarizing outcomes of literature analyses and results from own research projects in this field.

RESULTS

Basic functions for pervasive health care with respect to home care comprise emergency detection and alarm, disease management, as well as health status feedback and advice. These functions are complemented by optional (non-health care) functions. Four major paradigms for contemporary ICT architectures are person-centered ICT architectures, home-centered ICT architectures, telehealth service-centered ICT architectures and health care institution-centered ICT architectures.

CONCLUSIONS

Health-enabling technologies may lead to both new ways of living and new ways of health care. Both ways are interwoven. This has to be considered for appropriate ICT architectures of sensor-enhanced health information systems. IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association, may be an appropriate forum for interdisciplinary research exchange on health-enabling technologies for pervasive health care.

Same system, different outcomes: comparing the transitions from two paper-based systems to the same computerized physician order entry system

OBJECTIVE

To compare how nurses in two different paper-based systems perceive the impact of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system on their medication-related activities.

SETTING

13 non-surgical, adult inpatient wards in a Dutch academic hospital.

METHODS

Questionnaire survey of 295 nurses before and 304 nurses after the implementation of a CPOE system. These nurses worked with two different paper-based medication systems before the implementation: 'Kardex-system' and 'TIMED-system'. In the Kardex-system, the structure of the nursing medication work was similar to that of after the CPOE implementation, while in the TIMED-system, it was different. 'Adaptive Structuration Theory' (AST) was used to interpret the results.

RESULTS

The response rates were 52.2% (154/295) before and 44.7% (136/304) after the implementation. Kardex-nurses reported more positive effects than TIMED-nurses. TIMED-nurses reported that the computerized system was more inflexible, more difficult to work with, and slower than the TIMED-system. In the TIMED group, the overall mean score of the computerized process was not significantly different from that of the paper-based process. Moreover, nurses in both groups were more satisfied with the post-implementation process than with the pre-implementation process. Nevertheless, none of groups reported a better workflow support in the computerized system when compared to that of the paper-based systems.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that not only the technology but also large differences between pre- and post-implementation work structure influence the perceptions of users, and probably make the transition more difficult. This study also suggests that greater satisfaction with a system may not necessarily be a reflection of better workflow support.

Positive effects of electronic patient records on three clinical activities

PURPOSE

To investigate the effects of a fully functional electronic patient record (EPR) system on clinicians' work during team conferences, ward rounds, and nursing handovers.

METHOD

In collaboration with clinicians an EPR system was configured for a stroke unit and in trial use for 5 days, 24h a day. During the trial period the EPR system was used by all clinicians at the stroke unit and it replaced all paper records. The EPR system simulated a fully integrated clinical-process EPR where the clinicians experienced the system as if all transactions were IT supported. Such systems are not to be expected to be in operational use in Denmark until at least 2 years from now. The EPR system was evaluated with respect to its effects on clinicians' mental workload, overview, and need for exchanging information. Effects were measured by comparing the use of electronic records with the use of paper records prior to the trial period. The data comprise measurements from 11 team conferences, 7 ward rounds, and 10 nursing handovers.

RESULTS

During team conferences the clinicians experienced a reduction on five of six subscales of mental workload, and the physicians experienced an overall reduction in mental workload. The physician in charge also experienced increased clarity about the importance of and responsibilities for work tasks, and reduced mental workload during ward rounds. During nursing handovers the nurses experienced fewer missing pieces of information and fewer messages to pass on after the handover. Further, the status of the nursing plans for each patient was clearer for all nurses at the nursing handovers except the nurse team leader, who experienced less clarity about the status of the plans.

CONCLUSION

The clinicians experienced positive effects of electronic records over paper records for the three clinical activities involved in the evaluation. This is important in its own right and likely to affect clinicians' acceptance of EPR systems, their command of their work, and consequently the attainment of 'downstream' effects on patient outcomes.

Identifying and quantifying medication errors: evaluation of rapidly discontinued medication orders submitted to a computerized physician order entry system

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 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 reviewed by a clinical pharmacist or physicians. We found that of 114 rapidly discontinued orders by 75 physicians, two-thirds (35 of 53, PPV = 66; 95% CI = 53-77) of medication orders discontinued within 45 minutes were deemed inappropriate (overdose, underdose, etc.). Overall, 55% (63 of 114; 95% CI = 46-64%) of medication orders discontinued within 2 hours were deemed inappropriate. This measure offers a rapid, constant, inexpensive, and objective method to identify medication orders with a high probability of error. It may also serve as a screening and teaching mechanism for physicians-in-training.

Computerized provider order entry and patient safety

Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) are advocated health care information technologies for improving patient safety through reduction and prevention of medication errors. CPOE and DCS target specific errors in medication processes, particularly in prescribing and ordering. These are of particular importance in pediatrics, because children may be more vulnerable to prescribing errors than adults. Studies of CPOE/CDS performed at academic medical centers have demonstrated their effectiveness in reducing medication process errors in pediatrics, but scant data so far show effects on health outcomes. CPOE/CDS adoption requires significant expertise in health care processes, information technology, and change management. Adoption is a high-cost, high-risk venture with political implications.