Impact and Determinants of Commercial Computerized Prescriber Order Entry on the Medication Administration Process

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of commercial computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) on efficiency outcomes in an 864-bed community hospital.Methods: A retrospective study was developed to measure medication errors and medication order turnaround time in St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital located in the Texas Medical Center. The study data were collected by stratified random sampling through a review of medication orders submitted to the pharmacy using a paper-based order system and the CPOE system. Descriptive frequencies, chi-square test, Wilcoxon matched-pairs sign rank test, and logistic regression and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship among variables.Results: Of the 1,110 total orders reviewed (563 paper-based and 547 CPOE), a total of 135 medication errors were found, with 10.5% in paper-based versus 1.6% in CPOE. The most prevalent errors in paper-based orders were inappropriate abbreviations (24.4%), incorrect doses (15.6%), occurr...