Role of Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in Facilitating Medication Errors(By: Ross Koppel, PHD, COR Healthcare Resources, Healthcare Leadership Review, May 2005) Studies support the view that computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is a highly effective solution for reducing hospital medication errors. But CPOE may also facilitate errors, because organizations often accept technology solutions "as is," without recognizing that all changes generate new error risks. In an exhaustive two-year study conducted at a major 750-bed urban tertiary care teaching hospital in Pennsylvania, researchers cataloged the types of errors that a popular CPOE system could facilitate. They identified 22 types of medication error risks, some frequent, grouped into two broad categories: Information errors generated by fragmentation of data and failure to integrate the hospital's several computer and information systems; and, Human-machine interface flaws reflecting machine rules that do not correspond with work organization or usual behaviors. | |
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