The Leapfrog Group’s CPOE patient safety standard
The Leapfrog Group’s CPOE patient safety standard
According to the Washington, DC-based Leapfrog Group, hospitals that fulfill the standard on computer-based physician order entry (CPOE) will:
1. Require physicians of patients in hospitals to enter medication orders via a computer system that is linked to prescribing error prevention software.
2. Demonstrate that their CPOE system can intercept at least 50% of common serious prescribing errors, utilizing test cases and a testing protocol specified by The Leapfrog Group and developed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and First Consulting Group.
3. Require documented acknowledgement by the prescribing physician of the interception prior to any override.
4. Post the test case interception rate on a Leapfrog-designated web site.
A recent study by David Bates, MD, chief of general medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, demonstrated that CPOE reduced error rates by 55% — from 10.7 to 4.9 per 1,000 patients.1 Rates of serious medication errors fell by 88% in a subsequent study by the same group.2
References
1. Bates DW, Leape LL, Cullen DJ, Laird N, et al. Effect of computerized physician order entry and a team intervention on prevention of serious medication errors. JAMA 1998; 280:1,311-1,316.
2. Bates DW, Teich JM, Lee J, Seger D, Kuperman GJ, et al. The impact of computerized physician order entry on medication error prevention. JAMA 1999; 282:313-321.
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