Despite one recent study's findings that electronic health records are lacking in adverse drug event (ADE) detection, another study on computerized physician order entry systems came to the opposite conclusion.
The latter study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, determined that CPOE systems can indeed reduce preventable adverse drug events. According to senior author David Bates, M.D., senior vice president for quality and safety at Brigham and Women's Hospital, researchers saw a 34 percent reduction in such drug events across five community hospitals in Massachusetts over a five-year span from January 2005 to September 2010. Two-thousand total charts were reviewed during the study.
Despite the reduction in preventable ADEs, a 29.5 percent increase in potential ADEs or near-misses also accompanied CPOE implementation, according to a HealthCanal.com article.
"Our study shows that while rates of preventable ADEs may fall after CPOE implementation, all sites can benefit from tracking issues found post-implementation and making changes accordingly," Bates said. "The expertise and experience of others that have previously implemented CPOE can help guide the process."
To learn more:
- here's the study's abstract
- read the HealthCanal.com article