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Mon, Dec 07 2009 4:46 PM EST
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Hospitals planning to purchase a computerized provider order entry system should be forewarned: Think big. Real Big.
“CPOE is not plug and play,” Jan Gibson-Gerrity told an IHI session. “It’s a major, complex transformation for an organization, and it will take years. And you will need a big budget. You can’t cut corners.” Gibson-Gerrity, a RN, is director of clinical informatics at Christiana Care Health System in Delaware.
Any technology is only as good as the processes in place. Know your culture, know what changes will be needed to effectively implement your IT systems. And, Gibson-Gerrity stressed, don’t neglect the infrastructure necessary to support CPOE. “You will have zero tolerance from physicians if they have to wait for a screen to change. They will have zero tolerance for any downtime.”
The No. 1 planning priority for CPOE, she said: Identify key physician leaders who understand how critical the technology is and who will continue to champion it against the inevitable pushback from their colleagues on the medical staff.
There is a strong business case to be made to physicians, she said. For example, how many times are they interrupted now with calls from a nurse or pharmacist who can’t understand their written medication orders? CPOE will put a big dent in those interruptions.
One selling point hospitals can make on behalf of CPOE that all physicians will certainly appreciate, Gibson-Gerrity said: It will make their patients safer. And that’s really big.
Bill Santamour, managing editor of H&HN, is blogging live from IHI 2009.
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