Development and field testing of a self-assessment guide for computer-based provider order entry

This is a review for Carl V. Vartian, MD, Hardeep Singh, MD, Elise Russo and Dean Sittig’s Development and Field Testing of a Self-Assessment Guide for Computer-Based Provider Order Entry.

Background

While newly-available computer-based physician order entry (CPOE) can provide many benefits for the medical organizations and providers that use them, there are certain patient safety risks that might be presented after a CPOE implementation. With the Meaningful Use incentive promoting EHR and CPOE adoption in both the inpatient and outpatient settings, the accelerated implementations have increased reports of negative effects of these systems’ use. As a result of these negative reports, there has been a push to create a method of assessing CPOE-specific risks for healthcare organizations.

Materials and Methods

The authors performed analysis on relevant literature based on EHRs/CPOE systems and patient safety and interviewed subject matter experts in order to create a base of 250 items to include in the assessment. These items were then preliminary tested at site visits with clinicians. After this first round of tests, the items had been compressed to 22 concepts to be assessed.

They presented this 22 item assessment to a group of chief medical informatics officers (CMIO) and asked to them to respond with how much deliberation the CPOE system presented for each of the items. The responses to the assessment were assembled and analyzed.