The market for computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2018, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
The United States is the largest CPOE systems market and is expected to be the fastest growing, according to the report.
The increasing adoption of healthcare technology, including electronic health records systems, has boosted CPOE adoption.
Integration with other systems generally accounts for a third of the cost of a CPOE implementation, helping to explain why they're increasingly part of integrated platform for medication order management.The challenge for vendors remains to offer customizable, technologically enhanced and cost-effective offerings, according to the report.
Although the systems are prohibitively expensive for many individual provider organizations, government mandates and incentives will also drive adoption. Several governments in addition to the United States have encouraged use of CPOE systems through regulation and incentives.
Even in countries with relatively high adoption rates, however, usage remains low among physicians. Sporadic reports of errors associated with the systems creates mistrust among physicians, further hurting adoption. And docs often see the systems as a drain on their time.
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems faced a hurdle in its CPOE program, for example, when a group of 35 cardiologists said they were just too busy to help create order sets. As a result, the docs had many "behind-the-scenes" orders that weren't recorded, creating chaos. In the end, the organization gathered all the docs in one room to reach agreement on a multi-phased standardized process.
To learn more:
- read the report anouncement