CPOE remains a challenge for many, surveys show

Indicators show adoption, safety still weak

Even as meaningful use moves full steam ahead, a survey on the testing, monitoring and safety of computerized provider order entry, or CPOE, conducted every two years by healthcare watchdog the Leapfrog Group shows only slight progress on the safety front. Testing, monitoring and safety of CPOE remains a major challenge for hospitals and technology companies, said Leah Binder, CEO of the Leapfrog Group. Binder unveiled last month the results of the most recent survey. Two years ago, 214 hospitals used Leapfrog's Web-based simulation tool to test the ability of their CPOE systems to catch common medication errors, including errors that could lead to fatalities. The hospitals found their systems on average missed half of the routine medication orders and a third of the potentially fatal orders. Nearly all of the hospitals improved their performance after adjusting their systems and protocols and running the simulation a second time. According to Binder, in a similar test conducted over the last nine months of 2011 by 253 hospitals, the missed routine medication orders dropped to slightly more than a third and the fatal orders plummeted to just over one percent. "This is the kind of improvement that shows what persistent monitoring and adjustment of these systems can achieve, and the hospitals that participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and took the test deserve real credit," said Binder. "But hospitals and technology companies haven't finished the job. When CPOE is implemented the right way and hospitals and vendors follow up to monitor and improve it, the result is what every patient hopes for when their life is at stake – the perfect harmony of caregiver and technology working for them.” … The results of a survey released last month by Lexington, Mass.-based technology company Imprivata showed 45 percent of respondents indicated that more than half of their physicians were placing orders using CPOE. Yet, 38 percent reported that still less than 25 percent of their physicians were using CPOE.