Reducing prescribing errors: can a well-designed electronic system help?

Kathryn Went, Patricia Antoniewicz, Deborah A. Corner, Stella Dailly, Peter Gregor, Judith Joss, Fiona B. McIntyre, Shaun McLeod, Ian W. Ricketts, Alfred J. Shearer

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    13 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Rationale, aims and objectives

    In this study, the aim was to investigate if an electronic prescribing system designed specifically to reduce errors would lead to fewer errors in prescribing medicines in a secondary care setting.

    Method

    The electronic system was compared with paper prescription charts on 16 intensive care patients to assess any change in the number of prescribing errors.

    Results

    The overall level of compliance with nationally accepted standards was significantly higher with the electronic system (91.67%) compared with the paper system (46.73%). Electronically generated prescriptions were found to contain significantly fewer deviations (28 in 329 prescriptions, 8.5%) than the written prescriptions (208 in 408 prescriptions, 51%).

    Conclusion

    Taking an interdisciplinary approach to work on the creation of a system designed to minimize the risk of error has resulted in a favoured system that significantly reduces the number of errors made.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)556-559
    Number of pages4
    JournalJournal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
    Volume16
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2010

    Keywords

    • intensive care units
    • medical order entry systems
    • medication error - prevention and control
    • user-computer interface
    • PHYSICIAN ORDER ENTRY
    • MEDICATION ERRORS
    • UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
    • INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY
    • CRITICAL-CARE
    • STAFF

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