Effectiveness of Computerised Physician Order Entry

Running head: MINOR PROJECT REPORT
Effectiveness of computerised physician order entry
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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MINOR PROJECT REPORT
Introduction
Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) refers to the process undertaken by a
medical or healthcare professional that encompasses the act of entering medication orders or
all kinds of physician instructions, electronically, without the use of paper charts (Schiff et al.
2015). One of the primary benefits of adhering to CPOE is associated with the fact that this
technique has been successful in reducing medication errors that might be related to failure to
appropriately transcript the medication order, miscommunication during handovers or due to
poor handwriting.The orders entered electronically are communicated via a computer
network to the concerned medical staff and the associateddepartments such as, the laboratory,
pharmacy, or radiology, which in turn hold an essential responsibility for executing the
orders. CPOE has proved effective in reducing the time required for the distribution and
completion of the orders, while simultaneously increasing the medication efficiency (Ranji,
Rennke and Wachter 2014). This can be attributed to the fact that CPOEs reduce all forms of
transcriptionerrors that includes taking efforts to prevententry of duplicate orders, while
simplifying the management of the inventory and billing system. In other words, CPOE can
be defined as a form of patient management software. Thus, CPOEs create the provision of
electronically writing the entire range of orders and maintaining online medication
administration records, in addition to reviewing changes that are made to the orders. CPOEs
also prove useful in offering safety alerts, which get triggered due to entry of an unsafe order
such as, duplicate drug therapies. They have also proved effective in facilitating the process
of clinical decision making, thereby guiding healthcare professionals to less expensive
alternatives that increase the efficiency of patient care and safety.
CPOE systems are primarily designed with the aim ofmimicking the workflow of
paper-based patient charts. However, two common drawbacks of this technology that are
commonly cited include the time and money that it takes for the installation of a CPOE

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MINOR PROJECT REPORT
system across healthcare settings. Healthcare practitioner have used verbal and hand-written
communication orders for patients since ages, which were then transcribed by unit clerks,
ancillary staff and nurses before being executed. Injuries and adverse effects among patients
have often been correlated with manual order entries or handwritten notes that contribute to
poor legibility and subsequent errors (Khanna and 2014). Furthermore, prescribing errors
have also been identified as one of the largest kinds of avoidable medical errors in hospitals.
Research Objective
 To investigate the rates of medication errorsamong children in intensive care units.
 To evaluate the effectiveness of CPOE systems for reducing risks of medication error
among children in intensive care units.
Considering all forms of errors that might occur during healthcare delivery in pediatric
ICUs, medication errors have been recognised as the most frequent reason for adverse events
(Rinke et al. 2014). Adoption to CPOE has most often been slow owing to the resistance
faced from the providers, which in turn can be associated with the disruption of the
conventional methods of patient entry that have been followed since ages in existing care
settings. Thus, there is a need to determine the benefits of CPOE in reducing or eliminating
these errors in pediatric ICUs.
Background
Computerized physician order entry have been championed and promoted as a major
component of healthcare information technology. Although the concept of CPOE has evolved
over time, it gained importance in the past decade and has been defined as variety of
computer-based systems sharing some common features that are related to automation of the
medication ordering process, thereby ensuring legible, standardized, and complete orders.
One of the major criteria associated with the use of CPOE across healthcare systems was the