Perceptions of house officers who use physician order entry.
OBJECTIVE
Describe the perceptions of housestaff physicians about their experience using computerized physician order entry (POE) in hospitals.


METHODS
Qualitative study using data from participant observation, focus groups, and both formal and informal interviews. Data were analyzed by three researchers using a grounded approach to identify patterns and themes in the texts.


RESULTS
Six themes were identified, including housestaff education, benefits of POE, problems with POE, feelings about POE, implementation strategies, and the future of POE.


CONCLUSIONS
House officers felt that POE assists patient care but may undermine education. They found that POE works best when tailored to fit local and individual workflow. Implementation strategies should include mechanisms for engaging housestaff in the decision process.
Ash
J S
JS
Division of Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research, School of Medicine Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, USA.
Gorman
P N
PN
Hersh
W R
WR
Lavelle
M
M
Poulsen
S B
SB
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003625:Data Collection; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D010346:Patient Care Management; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface