Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems -- Radley et al. -- Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

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Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems -- Radley et al. -- Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

AHRQ Health IT Update: CPOE Reduces Medication Errors

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sent this bulletin at 02/21/2013 11:24 AM EST

Computerized Provider Order Entry Reduces Medication Errors in Hospitals

Processing a prescription through an electronic ordering system can reduce the likelihood of a drug error by half and potentially avoid more than 17 million such incidents in U.S. hospitals in one year alone, according to a new study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The authors evaluated published evidence on the impact of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) on hospital drug errors and combined this information with data on the adoption of CPOE and the volume of medication orders processed annually. The results estimated the reduction in drug errors for one year, finding that widespread adoption of CPOE could substantially reduce drug errors. 

“Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems” appears online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

To access the abstract, select: http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2013/01/27/amiajnl-2012-001241.full.