title: Alerting physicians during electronic order entry effectively reduces unnecessary repeat PCR testing for Clostridium difficile.
abstract: Hospital information systems (HIS) alerts restricting repeat Clostridium difficile PCR ordering by physicians in patients with a prior result within 7 days eliminated 91% of repeat tests, from 14.5% (282/1,949) repeats preintervention to 1.3% (135/10,285) postintervention. HIS alerting is an effective, targeted, patient-specific tool for improving the quality and utilization of C. difficile results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spradley
authors.forename: Niaz
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Banaei
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult