Impact of health information technology on detection of potential adverse drug events at the ordering stage.
OBJECTIVE
The impact of implementing commercially available health care information technologies at hospitals in a large health system on the identification of potential adverse drug events (ADEs) at the medication ordering stage was studied.


METHODS
All hospitals in the health system had implemented a clinical decision-support system (CDSS) consisting of a centralized clinical data repository, interfaces for reports, a results reviewer, and a package of ADE alert rules. Additional technology including computerized provider order entry (CPOE), an advanced CDSS, and evidence-based order sets was implemented in nine hospitals. ADE alerts at these hospitals were compared with alerts at nine hospitals without the advanced technology. A linear mixed-effects model was used in determining the mean response profile of six dependent variables over 28 total months for each experimental group.


RESULTS
Overall, hospitals with CPOE and an advanced CDSS captured significantly more ADE alerts for pharmacist review; an average of 336 additional potential ADEs per month per hospital were reviewed. Pharmacists identified some 94% of the alerts as false positives. Alerts identified as potentially true positives were reviewed with physicians, and order changes were recommended. The number of true-positive alerts per 1000 admissions increased.


CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of CPOE and advanced CDSS tools significantly increased the number of potential ADE alerts for pharmacist review and the number of true-positive ADE alerts identified per 1000 admissions.
Department of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, 5229 Westlawn, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. lance-l-roberts@uiowa.edu
Lance L
LL
Roberts
Marcia M
MM
Ward
Jane M
JM
Brokel
Douglas S
DS
Wakefield
Donald K
DK
Crandall
Paul
P
Conlon
D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D016303:Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000458:organization & administration; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration