The Right Pace for CPOE

They also have to understand the reasons for creating the new sets and why it’s important for everyone to agree to one standardized approach. To practice evidence-based medicine and ensure patient quality and safety, order sets must be customized
to the hospital—not to individual
physicians.

Before: Assemble the right team

Michigan-based MetroHealth system created a team that included senior leaders, physicians, nurses, IT staff, and representatives from other departments, such as lab and radiology.

Additional team members were assigned based on discharges from the previous year. Bradley Clegg, DO, is the chief of medical informatics at the organization, which is anchored by the 208-licensed-bed Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming, MI. His team went to each department manager and asked whether he or she would like to send staff members to the meetings or would be satisfied relying on the existing team. He told the managers that if they chose to send representatives, each one would have to attend every meeting that had to do with an order set from their department.

Websites and software that let multiple users work on a single document can be big timesavers when it comes to reviewing, editing, and approving CPOE order sets in preparation for implementation.

The WellStar system was faced with creating standardized evidence-based content across five hospitals that each had its own orders. The process of developing, approving, and getting order sets implemented took three to six months.

They sped up the order process by eliminating many meetings and adopting asynchronous online collaboration. They also sped up things by trying to set comment windows at just one week.