The Methods Used in the Collection of the Results
The evaluation of the errors in the drug prescription is showing that the most suitable intervention is the act of targeting the common flaws within the system as opposed to the individual fault. Literature studies acknowledge the positive effects of the Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) for the successful detection and prevention of errors that are encountered when recommending medicines. The CPOE supports the communication process during the prescription of medication, and this encourages the suitability of the treatment process.
The article is aimed at assessing the impacts of the Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) practice on the incidence of mortality in inpatient pediatric and neonatal care facilities. The findings in this study were obtained through a literature review. A search was performed for all potential sources that were focusing on the impacts of the CPOE on the mortality rate. The author adopted inclusion criteria while selecting the articles. In this case, the author employed a pediatric population aged between 0 to 8 years. The research work had to be a randomized control trial or cohort study that focuses on comparing the impacts of using CPOE with the strategies that do not involve the use of CPOE. The author also utilized exclusion criteria while selecting the articles, i.e., the descriptive and non-English literature was not used.
Description of the Best Practice
Errors witnessed in the drug prescription are considered to be a key issue that affects the successful delivery of healthcare services to patients. It increases the rate of morbidity, length of hospital stay, healthcare cost, and eventual deaths of pediatric clients. These problems interfere with the goal of providing quality healthcare services. Pediatric and neonatal units are three times more exposed to medication errors as compared to adult units (Eslami et al., 2019). Therefore, it is important to have an effective strategy that can be performed to help in the prevention and minimizing of these errors to ensure that there is a low level of exposure of pediatric individuals to a high risk of death. The CPOE is one of the major interventions that has been considered to help deal with these challenges.
The CPOE is a computer-based program with features which are promoting the automation of the medication ordering process. It is used to ensure that there is standardization and legalization of orders. The CPOE allows clinicians to send orders to the designated departments, such as pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, and the ancillary units. It is important in promoting the suitability of the ordering process (Alanazi, 2020). The suitability and the appropriateness of the drug order allow for measurement against the guidelines and the finest practices. According to the research studies, it is one of the best interventions that can be used to promote efficiency in service delivery (Alanazi, 2020). As a result, it provides perfect and eligible approaches to the provision of services in all critical areas of the institution.
The CPOE enables the activation of prescription sets, thus giving clinicians the opportunity of choosing suitable prescription guidelines. The CPOE is supporting the existence of clinical decision support (CDSS). The CDSS is important in putting forward proposals and recommendations which are associated with proper medication, routes, and drug dosages. Clinical decisions support the performance of the inquiry into the allergic status of patients and the drug and laboratory interactions (Alanazi, 2020). It also helps in introducing the successful process of management and preventive measures, especially in a sophisticated clinical support decision process. Therefore, through having the CDSS, clinicians can prevent these errors.
The CPOE is an essential intervention that helps in minimizing the faults in providing proper drug dosage to the patients in pediatric units. The reduction in these errors is linked with the ability of the CPOE system to automate the medication ordering process. It is more beneficial than a hand-written prescription which is more prone to errors (Alanazi, 2020). The CPOE supports the process of integrating the CDSS to assist in checking the dose range. It, therefore, implies that the use of CPOE system helps in the improvement of the overall safety of patients in the pediatric units.
Usually, the main focus in healthcare provision is to ensure that there is the delivery of quality healthcare services. The CPOE system helps to support safe and more consistent patient-center care. The attainment of well-being and effective health care delivery relies on the effectiveness of the CPOE system in supporting the quality of life (Alanazi, 2020). Therefore, the CPOE shows that control of medical errors is the paramount priority of healthcare providers to eliminate the adverse effects associated with medication errors.
Conclusion
The author concluded that CPOE has the ability to reduce the mortality rate and help in the improvement of the prescribing process. It offers guidance to the physicians during the delivery of healthcare services to patients. This conclusion is supported by the findings of the study, i.e., the CPOE strategy has features that assist in the automation of the medication ordering process and reducing the number of medication errors. Successful implementation of the CPOE strategy results in reduced cases of morbidity, healthcare costs, and mortality rates.
References
Alanazi, A. (2020). The effect of computerized physician order entry on mortality rates in a pediatric and neonatal care setting: Meta-analysis. Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, 19, 100308.
Eslami, K., Aletayeb, F., Aletayeb, S. M., Kouti, L., & Hardani, A. (2019). Identifying medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: a two-center study. BMC Pediatric, 19(1), 365.