Assessment of Unintentional Duplicate Orders by Emergency Department Clinicians Before and After Implementation of a Visual Aid in the Electronic Health Record Ordering System

Abstract

Key PointsQuestionCan a simple visual aid reduce duplicate ordering in an electronic health record?FindingsThis cohort study of 184 694 patients in an emergency department suggested that the introduction of a visual aid was associated with a 49% reduction in unintentional duplicate orders for laboratory tests and a 40% reduction in unintentional duplicate orders for radiology tests. There was no statistically significant change in unintentional duplicate orders for medications.MeaningThe results of this study suggest that a passive visual aid that guides clinicians to the right action is a useful alternative to an interruptive alert.

A Tool to Retrieve Alert Dwell Time from a Homegrown Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) System of an Academic Medical Center: An Exploratory Analysis

“…Most CPOE systems use alerts to prevent clinical errors and to optimize the safety and quality of clinical decisions [29], such as improving physician compliance with guidelines [30] and reducing unintentional duplicate orders [31]. Previous studies have shown that it takes physicians 8 to 10 s to completely read alerts.…”

A novel method to retrieve alerts from a homegrown Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system of an academic medical center: Comprehensive alert characteristic analysis

“…of alerts generated by their CPOE system, identify potential problems, and ultimately improve the alert system. Some studies have proved that the implementation of a CPOE system has many benefits, such as decreasing medical errors, improving physician compliance with guidelines [18], and reducing unintentional duplicate orders for laboratory tests [19]. Most CPOE systems use alerts to optimize the safety and quality of clinical decisions [20].…”

Leveraging Emergency Department Information Systems to Address Palliative Care Needs of ED Patients During the COVID Pandemic

“…4 Visual aids have been shown to reduce duplicate ordering of tests and medications. 5 Best practice alerts help provide critical information to providers, such as reminding providers of clinical protocols (e.g. suggesting a specific antibiotic) or monitoring for potential adverse events (e.g.…”