Over the past decade, hospital EHR systems' ability to detect harmful medication ordering errors has improved from 54 percent in 2009 to 66 percent in 2018, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
For the study, a team of researchers analyzed 8,657 hospital-year observations from adult hospitals across the U.S. that used the National Quality Forum Health IT Safety Measure EHR computerized physician order entry safety test administered by the Leapfrog Group between 2009 and 2018. The team analyzed data from July 1, 2018, to Dec. 1, 2019.
The analysis showed mean scores on the overall test rose from 53.9 percent in 2009 to 65.6 percent in 2018. The mean scores for the test categories representing basic clinical decision support increased from 69.8 percent in 2009 to 85.6 percent in 2018. Advanced clinical decision support, the mean score grew from 29.6 percent in 2009 to 46.1 percent in 2018.
The study authors concluded that there was considerable variation in test performance by EHR vendors and that the systems fail to meet basic safety standards less than 70 percent of the time. Study authors were from Salt Lake City-based University of Utah School of Medicine, Boston-based Harvard Business School, Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, Somerville, Mass.-based Partners Healthcare, Boston-based Harvard Medical School and the Leapfrog Group.