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Timely Topics of Interest

Health IT Detection of Medication Errors in US Hospitals – Implications for the VA Health Care System


by David Bates, MD, MS ; David Classen, MD, MS ; Jeannie Scott, PhD, MSHIM ; Jon White, MD
Seminar date: 10/28/2020

Description: The CPOE EHR evaluation tool has shown that hospital electronic medical records systems (EMRs) fail to detect one in three medication order errors. Initially developed at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to evaluate medication safety in electronic health records, this test is used broadly in US hospitals to simulate the way EHRs process clinicians’ medication orders. It detects whether the system allows the clinician to enter problematic medication orders, and what kinds of alerts clinicians receive when they attempt to order a medication that could harm or kill patients. The EMR test uses a series of dangerous scenarios based on actual adverse drug events that harmed or killed patients in the real world such as drug allergies, drug to drug interactions, and excessive dosing. After this presentation, attendees will be able to: • Explain the role of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in detecting and avoiding medication errors. • Implement CPOE testing in their electronic health record. Intended audience: Clinicians, researchers, and administrators interested in electronic health record evaluations.



DOWNLOAD: PDF handout | Audio only (mp3) | transcript


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