CPOE or computerized physician order entry is the computerized entry of medical instructions, which alerts for the treatment of patients. This is communicated directly to the hospital staff, including nurses, radiologist, pharmacists, laboratories, and others, through an automated computer network. The CPOE system stores data, such as patient records both past and present, images, scans, and any relevant data that is required for effective treatment.
Features Of CPOE
The features of CPOE include the following:
- Physician orders that are standardized and communicated to the concerned staff for timely treatment.
- Recording patient history and safety information that contains the past and present medical history of the patients, information of allergies, current drug usage, and dosage confirmation.
- Security features, such as electronic signatures to authenticate the user information.
- Ease of use from any location in the hospital.
- Convenient documentation, such as billing information.
Upside Of CPOE
CPOE systems have proved effective in reducing medication errors due to illegible prescriptions, dispensation of wrong drug, drug overdose, and multiple drug interactions and allergies. Also, current and updated information about the test and results of patients can be made available to the doctors on time. CPOE systems also stores drug-related information, which significantly reduces confusion in the name of drugs, thus eliminating the possibility of wrong drugs being administered.
A recent study conducted at Salt Lake City and Ohio has showed that the implementation of this system resulted in the reduction of antibiotic-related deaths. This also reduced the time taken for the treatment of patients and thus the length of their stay in the hospital.
Downside Of CPOE
There are always some risks associated with new systems due to the lack of experience and time taken by the staff to get used to it. Any delay in entry can delay treatment. Such delay can also result in erroneous medications if the updates recommended by the doctors are not relayed to the nurses and other staff on time.
Also, if medical personnel start relying solely on this automated system, personal considerations of weight or previous history can easily be ignored leading to errors that could seriously harm the patients.
Conclusion
Studies claim that the implementation of CPOE has reduced the mortality rates in hospitals, but the use of this system is not very widespread. This is due to the high cost of implementation and maintenance charges. Also, doctors used to the paper filing method may be reluctant to switch over to the automated system and may take some time to adapt to it.
These hurdles can be overcome by testing the CPOE system and evaluating the features before implementing them. This can be done with the help of an assessment tool and by comparing the score obtained with a standard provided by the national research and development council.
With the advantages that this system has to offer, there is no doubt that this system will be adopted by a majority of hospitals in the coming years.
