Improving adherence to safe prescription guidelines for Dapsone: harnessing an enhanced electronic medical records system and a team approach

Facilitation or Hindrance: Physicians' Perception on Best Practice Alerts (BPA) Usage in an Electronic Health Record System

A qualitative study was conducted to examine physicians' perception on best practice alerts (BPAs) usage under the theoretical framework of technology acceptance model (TAM). In particular, 20 face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted from September 2016 to February 2017 to collect data. Four themes emerged from the current set of data: support, de-escalation, management, and enhancement are physicians' perceived motivations of using BPAs; interactivity, timing, and interface design are key factors that influence physicians' perceived experiences of using BPAs; alert fatigue and inaccurate alters are major challenges and issues faced by physicians when using BPAs; and, control and team approach are physicians' perceptions on the future improvement of BPAs. This study not only offers a detailed description of physicians' perception of BPAs, revealing the rich meanings associated with this phenomenon, but also enriches our understanding of the TAM in the context of BPAs by uncovering the key dimensions of abstract constructs in the model.

Analysis of high alert medication knowledge of medical staff in Tianjin: A convenient sampling survey in China

The current situation of medical staff's awareness about high alert medication was investigated in order to promote safe medication and standardized management of the high alert medication in China. Twenty questions were designed concerning elementary knowledge of high alert medications, storage management, medication issues and risks. In order to understand the knowledge level and education status of high alert medication, a convenient survey was conducted among 300 medical staffs in Tianjin. Medical staff's average score of high alert medication knowledge was 12.43±0.27, and the average scores of elementary knowledge of high alert medication, storage management, medication issues and risks were 3.38±0.11, 2.46±0.14, 3.17±0.11 and 3.41±0.12 respectively. Occupation (F=4.86, P=0.003), education background (F=5.57, P=0.019) and professional titles (F=13.44, P≤0.001) contributed to the high alert medications knowledge scores. Currently, the most important channel to obtain high alert medication knowledge was hospital files or administrative rules, and clinical pharmacist seminars were the most popular education form. It was suggested that the high alert medication knowledge level of the medical staff needs to increase, and it might benefit from targeted, systematic and diverse training to the medical staff working in the different circulation nodes of the medications. Further research to develop and validate the instrument is needed.