Computerized Physician Order Entry

Technology is a major asset to healthcare and without it our healthcare system would not be what it is today. With systems like the Computerized Physician Order Entry, patient safety is the number one priority. However, designing sophisticated software systems that only take the patient aspect into consideration can lead to unintentional errors for healthcare providers. In order to make recommendations for the future we need to understand what the Computerized Physician Order Entry does and the unintentional errors it causes.

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) allows physicians to electronically enter their patients’ medical orders into the EHR. These orders can then be viewed by other departments and healthcare professionals on a secured network. This system also contains safety alerts and offers permanent record keeping. CPOE was put into place to reduce the risk of medication errors and improve the safety of patient care practices. In order to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety the system was designed to have alert and signaling features to let the nurse know there is a medication safety issue. These safety issues result when there is an error in the six rights of medication administration. The six rights are; right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right order, and right time. For example, the wrong dose of medication would alert the nurse that the dose does not match the physicians’ orders, preventing potential harm to the patient. Another example would be administering a medication outside the specified time frame. This would alert the nurse to hold the medication and investigate further. If the nurse decides to continue giving the medication they must specify their reasoning for giving i...

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...p improve systems like CPOE by simply making recommendations for areas of improvement like the unintentional errors stated above. In order for CPOE to meet patient safety standards the patient and the healthcare providers using the system need to be taken into consideration. This will reduce the risk for unintentional errors in the future.

Technology is the key to the future. However, in order to utilize technology in the manner it was intended many different aspects need to be taken into account in the designing process. Collaborating with nurses and other healthcare providers can prevent unintentional errors from occurring in the future. Designing software to improve patient safety is important but the intended users, such as nurses, are equally important. If nurses are finding workarounds in the system due to unintentional errors the patients’ safety is at risk.