A Study on Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Severe Drug-Drug Interaction Alert System in ICU

Abstract

Background and objective: The overridden rate of Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts (DDIAs) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is very high. Therefore, this study aimed to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a severe Drug-Drug Alert System (DDIAS) in ICU and measure the override rate of DDIAs. Methods This is a cross-sectional study for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of severe DDIAs into a Computerized Provider Order Entry(CPOE) system in the ICUs of Nemazee general teaching hospitals in 2021. The patients exposed to the volume of DDIAs, acceptance and overridden of DDIAs, and usability of DDIAS have been collected. Results The knowledge base of DDIAS contains 9,809 severe DDIs. A total of 2672 medications were prescribed in the population study. The volume and acceptance rate for severe DDIAs were 81 and 97.5%, respectively. However, the override rate was 2.5%. The mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of the DDIAS was 75. Conclusion This study demonstrated that the implementation of high-risk DDIAs at point of prescribing in ICU improved adherence to alerts. In addition, the usability of DDIAS was reasonable. Further studies are need to investigate the establishment of severe DDIAS and measure the physician's response to DDIAS on a larger scale.