[STUDY] CPOE Cuts Medication Errors in Half

A new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows that use of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems can actually cut occurrences of drug errors in hospitals by 48 percent.

In the study, “Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems,” researchers used existing data on  CPOE systems currently in use as well as statistics on the adoption of electronic prescription systems and the volume of medication errors that occur annually to predict the impact that widespread adoption of CPOEs might have on reducing these types of adverse events in hospitals.  Researchers concluded that widespread electronic prescribing could actually avert more than 17 million errors nationwide each year.

To read the report, published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, click here.