What is a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system?
A computerized physician order entry system (CPOE) enables physicians, physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners to enter medication (or test) orders into a computer instead of using any kind of handwritten form. Computerized orders are easy to read and the system software can also deliver tips, reminders, best practices and automatic alerts about potentially harmful drug interactions or allergies. CPOE has been in place at BWH since 2004, and BWH has been a national leader in studying its benefits. Recent research shows that if CPOE was implemented in all urban U.S. hospitals, as many as 907,600 serious medication errors could be prevented each year.
What are we doing to improve?
Now that CPOE has been adopted in all of our inpatient areas, we are focusing on improving the system. Current goals include expanding our system’s ability to track medications, enhancing allergy and drug interaction alerts, and improving the templates used for ordering high risk drugs, such as anticoagulants.
How are we doing?
As a pioneer developer of a CPOE system to prevent medication errors, BWH helped to establish a nationally accepted safety practice and became one of the earliest adopters of the technology.
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Tom Walsh
This page was last modified on 5/9/2013