The use of health information technology (HIT) has evolved over the past decade. Although the application of HIT can help improve safety and quality, if not implemented well it can have devastating consequences on patient safety. A total of 889 medication-error reports listed HIT as a factor contributing to the event submitted to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority between January 1and June 30, 2016. The three most commonly reported event types were dose omission (n = 123), wrong dose/overdosage (n = 97), and extra dose (n = 95). The most common HIT systems implicated in the events were the computerized prescriber order entry system (CPOE; n = 448), the pharmacy system (n = 251), and the electronic medication administration record (eMAR; n = 250). To identify and prevent errors attributed to HIT, organizations can encourage frontline staff to report errors or near miss errors due to HIT so they can be analyzed and systems improved.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)