5 Ways to Avoid CPOE Pitfalls

"If we put in an alert for anything that could possibly go wrong, they may never get through the order set," says Stephen Tranquillo, vice president and CIO for Thomas Jefferson.

3. Double-check it

In a recent study by the Washington, DC-based Leapfrog Group, 214 hospitals used a Web-based simulator to test their systems for common medication errors, including potentially fatal errors. The CPOE systems on average missed half of the routine medication orders and a third of the potentially fatal orders.

That sobering statistic is a strong reason to run such tests, monitor for missed alerts at least monthly, and perform a root cause analysis any time there is a medication error, says Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder.

4. Don't set it and forget it