Question

CPOE systems are designed to improve the ordering process in hospitals and improve patient safety and quality of care. However, researchers have identified several unintended consequences associated with CPOE system implementations. Research the unintended consequences of CPOE adoptions, answer the questions below, and provide 3 literature citations supporting your answers.

1. What are three unintended consequences of CPOE adoption in hospitals and how or why do these unintended consequences occur?

Answer 1

CPOE stands for Computerized Provider Order Entry which is used to replace paper-based ordering system of the healthcare. With the help of this system, the users can electronically maintain an online record of medication administration, write orders in detail, as well as analyze changes made by successive staff in an order. It helps in making the process of maintaining and administrating medication records easy. But there are some unintended consequences as well of the CPOE system such as;

1. Unfavorable workflow problems
2. Overdependence on technology
3. New as well as more work to clinicians

There are several reasons for unintended consequences of CPOE. The first and foremost reason is that it reduces face-to-face communication significantly between the patients and clinicians. Thus, chances of occurring error increase which leads to unfavorable workflow issues. It also increases the workload of the clinicians as they have to rectify the mistakes and record correct information. It has also been found that sometimes, wrong information is recorded by the clinicians, which is also a major issue. CPOE system significantly reduces paper-based work and to record any information technology is needed. Hence, it also increases dependency on technology. It also takes more time in documentation as it requires detailed information as compared to paper-based work. Due to such reasons, unintended consequences occur.

References

Prgomet, M., Li, L., Niazkhani, Z., Georgiou, A., & Westbrook, J. I. (2016). Impact of commercial computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) on medication errors, length of stay, and mortality in intensive care units: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(2), 413-422.

Gephart, S., Carrington, J. M., & Finley, B. (2015). A systematic review of nurses' experiences with unintended consequences when using the electronic health record. Nursing administration quarterly, 39(4), 345-356.

Zheng, K., Abraham, J., Novak, L. L., Reynolds, T. L., & Gettinger, A. (2016). A survey of the literature on unintended consequences associated with health information technology: 2014–2015. Yearbook of medical informatics, 25(01), 13-29.