Implementation of order sets for opioid alternatives in community hospital emergency departments.

PURPOSE: The design and implementation of alternatives to opioids (ALTO) order sets for the treatment of acute pain in a community health system's emergency departments are described. SUMMARY: Healthcare institutions nationwide have incorporated policies and procedures to assist prescribers in the safe and effective management of pain. These adopted approaches may be targeted at mitigating opioid prescribing as well as promoting the optimization of nonopioid analgesics. Institutions that enact innovations and track outcomes may be eligible for reimbursement through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Emergency departments may monitor implementation progress and outcomes through participation in the American College of Emergency Physician's Emergency Quality Network. Clinical pharmacists were tasked with assisting an institution's emergency departments to create and implement two order sets containing ALTO analgesics and supportive medications for atraumatic headache and general acute pain management. Key steps of order set implementation included collaborative development with emergency department providers, implementation with information services, and the development of provider-focused education by project pharmacists. The implementation of ALTO order sets has set the foundation for expansion of pain control protocols and algorithms within our institution. Furthermore, the approach detailed in this article can be adapted and implemented by other healthcare systems to help reduce opioid prescribing. CONCLUSION: The implementation of ALTO order sets within an electronic health record can encourage decreased prescribing of opioids for the treatment of acute pain, promote and optimize dosing of nonopioid analgesics, and may augment reimbursement for services in the emergency department.

Optimizing Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts Using a Multidimensional Approach.

OBJECTIVES: Excessive alerts are a common concern associated with clinical decision support systems that monitor drug-drug interactions (DDIs). To reduce the number of low-value interruptive DDI alerts at our hospital, we implemented an iterative, multidimensional quality improvement effort, which included an interdisciplinary advisory group, alert metrics, and measurement of perceived clinical value. METHODS: Alert data analysis indicated that DDIs were the most common interruptive medication alert. An interdisciplinary alert advisory group was formed to provide expert advice and oversight for alert refinement and ongoing review of alert data. Alert data were categorized into drug classes and analyzed to identify DDI alerts for refinement. Refinement strategies included alert suppression and modification of alerts to be contextually aware. RESULTS: On the basis of historical analysis of classified DDI alerts, 26 alert refinements were implemented, representing 47% of all alerts. Alert refinement efforts resulted in the following substantial decreases in the number of interruptive DDI alerts: 40% for all clinicians (22.9-14 per 100 orders) and as high as 82% for attending physicians (6.5-1.2 per 100 orders). Two patient safety events related to alert refinements were reported during the project period. CONCLUSIONS: Our quality improvement effort refined 47% of all DDI alerts that were firing during historical analysis, significantly reduced the number of DDI alerts in a 54-week period, and established a model for sustained alert refinements.

The Prevalence of Dose Errors Among Paediatric Patients in Hospital Wards with and without Health Information Technology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The risk of dose errors is high in paediatric inpatient settings. Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems with clinical decision support (CDS) may assist in reducing the risk of dosing errors. Although a frequent type of medication error, the prevalence of dose errors is not well described. Dosing error rates in hospitals with or without CPOE have not been compared. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to conduct a systematic review assessing the prevalence and impact of dose errors in paediatric wards with and without CPOE and/or CDS. METHODS: We systematically searched five databases to identify studies published between January 2000 and December 2017 that assessed dose error rates by medication chart audit or direct observation. RESULTS: We identified 39 studies, nine of which involved paediatric wards using CPOE with or without CDS. Studies of paediatric wards using paper medication charts reported approximately 8-25% of patients experiencing a dose error, and approximately 2-6% of medication orders and approximately 3-8% of dose administrations contained a dose error, with estimates varying by ward type. The nine studies of paediatric wards using CPOE reported approximately 22% of patients experiencing a dose error, and approximately 1-6% of medication orders and approximately 3-8% of dose administrations contained a dose error. Few studies provided data for individual wards. The severity and prevalence of harm associated with dose errors was rarely assessed and showed inconsistent results. CONCLUSIONS: Dose errors occur in approximately 1 in 20 medication orders. Hospitals using CPOE with or without CDS had a lower rate of dose errors compared with those using paper charts. However, few pre/post studies have been conducted and none reported a significant reduction in dose error rates associated with the introduction of CPOE. Future research employing controlled designs is needed to determine the true impact of CPOE on dosing errors among children, and any associated patient harm.

Reduced Effectiveness of Interruptive Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts after Conversion to a Commercial Electronic Health Record.

BACKGROUND: Drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts in electronic health records (EHRs) can help prevent adverse drug events, but such alerts are frequently overridden, raising concerns about their clinical usefulness and contribution to alert fatigue. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of conversion to a commercial EHR on DDI alert and acceptance rates. DESIGN: Two before-and-after studies. PARTICIPANTS: 3277 clinicians who received a DDI alert in the outpatient setting. INTERVENTION: Introduction of a new, commercial EHR and subsequent adjustment of DDI alerting criteria. MAIN MEASURES: Alert burden and proportion of alerts accepted. KEY RESULTS: Overall interruptive DDI alert burden increased by a factor of 6 from the legacy EHR to the commercial EHR. The acceptance rate for the most severe alerts fell from 100 to 8.4%, and from 29.3 to 7.5% for medium severity alerts (P < 0.001). After disabling the least severe alerts, total DDI alert burden fell by 50.5%, and acceptance of Tier 1 alerts rose from 9.1 to 12.7% (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Changing from a highly tailored DDI alerting system to a more general one as part of an EHR conversion decreased acceptance of DDI alerts and increased alert burden on users. The decrease in acceptance rates cannot be fully explained by differences in the clinical knowledge base, nor can it be fully explained by alert fatigue associated with increased alert burden. Instead, workflow factors probably predominate, including timing of alerts in the prescribing process, lack of differentiation of more and less severe alerts, and features of how users interact with alerts.

Failure of a Best Practice Alert to Reduce Antibiotic Prescribing Rates for Acute Sinusitis Across an Integrated Health System in the Midwest.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is a growing concern, and in recent years, there has been increased interest in ambulatory antimicrobial stewardship. Acute rhinosinusitis (ARS) is one of the most common outpatient diagnoses that results in an antibiotic prescription. OBJECTIVE: To determine if a best practice alert (BPA) will affect the percentage of oral antibiotic prescriptions for adults with ARS. METHODS: A prospective, pre/post study was initiated to evaluate the percentage of oral antibiotic prescriptions for ARS in 117 primary care clinics in the Midwest. Included in the study results were 16,570 adults who had an office visit for ARS: 8,106 patients from December 1, 2015, to February 28, 2016, were in the pre-intervention group without an active BPA, and 8,464 patients from December 1, 2016, to February 28, 2017, were in the post-intervention group when the BPA was active. The primary outcome was the number of oral antibiotic prescriptions for ARS compared with the number of office visits for ARS in the pre- and postintervention groups. RESULTS: The percentage of oral antibiotics prescribed for the pre- and postintervention groups were 94.8% and 94.3%, respectively (P = 0.152). The BPA displayed for 7,780 visits, prompting discontinuation of an antibiotic for 10 (0.1%) visits in the postintervention group. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that, although an electronic alert may be attractive to facilitate antimicrobial stewardship, it may be ineffective. These results warrant alternative measures to facilitate ambulatory antimicrobial stewardship. DISCLOSURES: No outside funding supported this study. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Study concept and design were contributed by Hansen, D. Leedahl, and N. Leedahl. Hansen and N. Leedahl took the lead in data collection, with assistance from Carson and D. Leedahl. Data interpretation was performed by all the authors. The manuscript was written by Hansen, along with the other authors, and revised by all the authors.

Developing an electronic system to manage and track emergency medications.

PURPOSE: The development of a Web-based program to track and manage emergency medications with radio frequency identification (RFID) is described. SUMMARY: At the Cleveland Clinic, medication kit restocking records and dispense locations were historically documented using a paper record-keeping system. The Cleveland Clinic investigated options to replace the paper-based tracking logs with a Web-based program that could track the real-time location and inventory of emergency medication kits. Vendor collaboration with a board of pharmacy (BOP) compliance inspector and pharmacy personnel resulted in the creation of a dual barcoding system using medication and pocket labels. The Web-based program was integrated with a Cleveland Clinic-developed asset tracking system using active RFID tags to give the real-time location of the medication kit. The Web-based program and the asset tracking system allowed identification of kits nearing expiration or containing recalled medications. Conversion from a paper-based system to a Web-based program began in October 2013. After 119 days, data were evaluated to assess the success of the conversion. Pharmacists spent an average of 27 minutes per day approving medication kits during the postimplementation period versus 102 minutes daily using the paper-based system, representing a 74% decrease in pharmacist time spent on this task. Prospective reports are generated monthly to allow the manager to assess the expected workload and adjust staffing for the next month. CONCLUSION: Implementation of a BOP-approved Web-based system for managing and tracking emergency medications with RFID integration decreased pharmacist review time, minimized compliance risk, and increased access to real-time data.

Development of a standardized approach for managing opioids in adults with chronic noncancer pain.

PURPOSE: The implementation of a chronic pain protocol (CPP) and its effects on the management of long-term opioid therapy are described. SUMMARY: The CPP used at a federally qualified health center and primary care clinic was updated in 2015 and included a prescribing ceiling in morphine equivalent dose (MED) per day and standardized the prescribing of chronic opioids. Intermittent urine drug screening performed at least once annually was added as a requirement of the pain management contract between the provider and the patient. An electronic report was developed to identify patients who were receiving long-term opioid therapy at the clinic. The clinical pharmacists identified patients from the report whose long-term opioid doses were over the clinic-recommended MED threshold, needed a pain contract, or were due for a urine drug screen. The number of patients for whom long-term opioids were prescribed decreased for all clinicians, including an 88% reduction by nurse practitioners. Over 12 months, 97 fewer patients with chronic pain were treated with a long-term opioid at the clinic. The number of patients with pain contracts increased by 22.9% (p < 0.001), and the number of patients who had a urine drug screen over a 12-month period increased by 18.3% (p = 0.0016). CONCLUSION: The implementation of a CPP and the development of electronic reports to track provider adherence to the protocol led to a reduction in the number of chronic pain patients receiving long-term opioid therapy. The number of patients with pain contracts increased.

[Electronic decision support to promote medication safety]. / Elektronische Entscheidungsunterstützung zur Annäherung an eine sichere Arzneimitteltherapie.

Because of its inherent complexity, it is a considerable challenge to tailor drug treatment to a prevalent disease and its subgroups, which are increasingly defined by genomic variability (personalized medicine) and require consideration of context information such as co-morbidity, co-medication, patient preferences, and the specific characteristics of the healthcare sector. Thus, optimum treatment decisions might not be taken intuitively any longer, because decisions must be made both rapidly and increasingly based on analyses of complex relations of numerous variables that exceed the processing performance of a human brain. Hence, computer support is indispensable to ensure error-free high-performance medicine. A key step in computer-supported medication safety is to implement a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system that compiles a patient's medication in a structured and coded format enabling the link to clinical decision support (CDS) systems. Implementing a CPOE is hence a strategic step for a hospital, which is crucial to exhaustingly and consistently prevent medication errors. Thereby, the best performance of a CPOE is achieved if it is deeply integrated into an electronic patient record thus enabling access to relevant patient information, which again has to be structured to allow processing. To efficiently support drug treatment, CDS systems must fulfill high-quality standards with regard to underlying data, integration, and user-interaction to ensure that they support but do not impede the provision of care.

Electronic health record innovations: Helping physicians - One less click at a time.

BACKGROUND: Physician burnout is becoming an epidemic, due to the pressures of being productive, an imperfect electronic health record (EHR) system, and limited face-to-face time with patients. Poor usability in EHR-user interface can force users to go through more steps (i.e. more clicks on the computer) in accomplishing a task. OBJECTIVE: This increased 'click burden' is a source of frustration for physicians. In the light of increased click burden and time due to meaningful use requirements, there is a need to improve the physician's experience by creating innovations in EHR. METHOD: This case study describes an attempt by physicians at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital to enhance the EHR experience with more efficient methods of documentation, chart review, ordering and patient safety. RESULTS: The EHR innovations trialled in this study were: a mobile documentation application; abnormal test results auto-populated into an EHR patient summary; physician alerts to reduce inappropriate test ordering; and a system of safety alerts on a dashboard. These innovations led to decreased click burden and allowed physicians to spend less time on the computer and more time with patients. CONCLUSION: Physician-driven changes to EHR systems have the potential to streamline virtual workflows and the management of health information and to improve patient safety, reduce physician burnout and increase physician job satisfaction.

Reduction in targeted potentially inappropriate medication use in elderly inpatients: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: The use of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in hospitalized older adults is a complex problem, but the use of computerized alert systems (CAS) has shown some potential. The study's objective is to assess the change in PIM use with a CAS-based pharmacist-physician intervention model compared to usual clinical care. METHODS: Pragmatic single-site randomized controlled trial was conducted at a university teaching hospital. Hospitalizations identified with selected Beers or STOPP criteria were randomized to usual clinical care or to the CAS-based pharmacist-physician intervention. The primary outcome was PIM drug cessation or dosage decrease. Clinical relevance of the CAS alerts was assessed. RESULTS: Analyses included 231 patients who had 128 and 126 hospitalizations in the control and intervention groups, respectively. Patients had a mean age of 81, and 60% were female. In the intervention compared to the control group, drug cessation or dosage decrease were more frequent at 48 h post-alert (45.8 vs 15.9%; absolute difference 30.0%; 95%CI 13.8 to 46.1%) and at discharge from the hospital (48.1 vs 27.3%; absolute difference 20.8%; 95%CI 4.6 to 37.0%). In a post hoc analysis of all alerts, regardless of their clinical relevance, the absolute difference in drug cessation or dosage decrease between the intervention and control groups was 16.2% (95%CI 2.9 to 29.6%) at 48 h and 8.0% (95%CI -4.0 to 20.0%) at discharge from the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: In hospitalized older adults, a CAS-based pharmacist-physician intervention, compared to usual clinical care, resulted in significant higher number of drug cessation and dosage reductions for targeted PIMs.

Technology-induced errors associated with computerized provider order entry software for older patients.

Background The introduction of new technologies in the prescribing process has seen the emergence of new types of medication errors. Objective To determine the prevalence and consequences of technology-induced prescription errors associated with a computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system in hospitalized older patients. Setting Patients 65 years or older admitted to the Departments of Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Vascular Surgery of a tertiary hospital. Method Prospective observational 6-month study. Technology-induced errors were classified according to various taxonomies. Interrater reliability was measured. Consequences were assessed by interviewing patients and healthcare providers and classified according to their severity. Main outcome measure Prevalence of technology-induced errors. Results A total of 117 patients were included and 107 technology-induced errors were recorded. The prevalence of these errors was 3.65%. Half of the errors were clinical errors (n = 54) and the majority of these were classified as wrong dose, wrong strength, or wrong formulation. Clinical errors were 9 times more likely to be more severe than procedural errors (14.8 vs 1.9%; OR 9.04, 95% CI 1.09-75.07). Most of the errors did not reach the patient. Almost all errors were related to human-machine interactions due to wrong (n = 61) or partial (n = 41) entries. Conclusion Technology-induced errors are common and intrinsic to the implementation of new technologies such as CPOE. The majority of errors appear to be related to human-machine interactions and are of low severity. Prospective trials should be conducted to analyse in detail the way these errors occur and to establish strategies to solve them and increase patient safety.

A New Tool to Tackle the Opioid Epidemic: Description, Utility, and Results from the Maine Diversion Alert Program.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The opioid epidemic continues to impact the United States, and new strategies are needed to combat this epidemic. The objective of this study was to analyze 2015 drug arrest data from Maine's Diversion Alert (DA) program (diversionalert.org), compare arrest data between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016, and provide an analysis of the sex differences in the arrests as well as information about DA use. STUDY DESIGN: This was a population-based descriptive study using data from the Maine DA program. The study population consisted of persons arrested for prescription, nonprescription, or illicit drugs. DATA SOURCE: DA database. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The DA program addresses Maine's prescription drug abuse epidemic with innovative resources that provide access to drug arrest data for health care providers to identify and respond to patients at risk for overdose, those engaged in illegal prescription drug distribution, and those who need treatment. Drug arrest data from 2015 (2723 arrests) and the first quarter of 2016 (788 arrests) were compared and analyzed. The drugs implicated in the arrests were organized by Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) schedule category and whether they were pharmaceuticals (synthesized and distributed by a pharmaceutical company) or nonpharmaceuticals (grown or synthesized in clandestine laboratories). Most arrests were for possession (64.5%) followed by trafficking (23.8%). Heroin was listed in more than three-quarters (76.4%) of the Schedule I arrests, followed by marijuana (11.7%) and "bath salts" (6.3%). Cocaine and crack cocaine were implicated in almost half (46.7%) of the Schedule II arrests, followed by oxycodone (21.0%) and methamphetamine/amphetamine (15.8%). Buprenorphine was responsible for almost all (96.7%) of the Schedule III arrests. The benzodiazepines alprazolam (34.3%), clonazepam (33.8%), diazepam (11.9%), and lorazepam (8.5%) were listed in the preponderance of the Schedule IV arrests. Arrests increased in 2016 by 49.2% for heroin (p<0.01) and 170.0% for methamphetamine (p≤0.0005) relative to 2015. Arrests for trafficking increased by 42.9% (p<0.05). Males outnumbered females 2:1 in DA. Schedule IV agents accounted for only 6.8% of arrests for males versus 11.5% for females (p≤0.0001). Conversely, Schedule I agents were implicated in 33.0% of arrests for males versus only 27.3% for females (p<0.005). CONCLUSION: DA is an important tool for providing timely information for health care providers regarding individuals with a history of past misuse of psychotherapeutic agents, particularly opioids and stimulants.

The effects of an educational meeting and subsequent computer reminders on the ordering of laboratory tests by rheumatologists: an interrupted time series analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of an educational meeting and subsequent computer reminders on the number of ordered laboratory tests. METHODS: Using interrupted time series analysis we assessed whether trends in the number of laboratory tests ordered by rheumatologists between September 2012 and September 2015 at the Sint Maartenskliniek (the Netherlands) changed following an educational meeting (September 2013) and the introduction of computer reminders into the Computerised Physician Order Entry System (July 2014). The analyses were done for the set of tests on which both interventions had focussed (intervention tests; complement, cryoglobulins, immunoglobins, myeloma protein) and a set of control tests unrelated to the interventions (alanine transferase, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide, C-reactive protein, creatine, haemoglobin, leukocytes, mean corpuscular volume, rheumatoid factor and thrombocytes). RESULTS: At the start of the study, 101 intervention tests and 7660 control tests were ordered per month by the rheumatologists. After the educational meeting, both the level and trend of ordered intervention and control tests did not change significantly. After implementation of the reminders, the level of ordered intervention tests decreased by 85.0 tests (95%-CI -133.3 to -36.8, p<0.01), the level of control tests did not change following the introduction of reminders. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, an educational meeting alone was not effective in decreasing the number of ordered intervention tests, but the combination with computer reminders did result in a large decrease of those tests. Therefore, we recommend using computer reminders in addition to education if reduction of inappropriate test use is aimed for.

A quantitative comparison of ward-based clinical pharmacy activities in 7 acute UK hospitals.

Background Several clinical pharmacy activities are common to UK hospitals. It is not clear whether these are provided at similar levels, and whether they take similar amounts of time to carry out. Objective To quantify and compare clinical pharmacist ward activities between different UK hospitals. Setting Seven acute hospitals in the Greater London area (UK). Methods A list of common ward activities was developed. On five consecutive days, pharmacists visiting hospital wards documented total time spent and how many of each activity they undertook. Results were analysed by hospital. The range and number of activities per 100 occupied bed days, and per 24 beds were compared. Main outcome measure Time spent on wards and numbers of each activity undertaken. Results Pharmacists logged a total of 2291 h carrying out 40,000 activities. 4250 changes to prescriptions were made or recommended. 5901 individual medication orders were annotated for clarity or safety. For every 24 beds visited, mean time spent was 230 min-seeing 6.2 new patients, carrying out 3.9 calculations and 1.3 patient consultations, checking and authorising 1.8 discharge prescriptions, and providing staff with information twice. Other activities varied significantly, not all could be explained by differences in hospital specialties or Information Technology systems. Conclusion This is the first detailed comparison of clinical pharmacy ward activities between different hospitals. There are some typical levels of activities carried out. Wide variations in other activities could not always be explained. Despite a large number of contacts, pharmacists reported very few consultation sessions with patients.

[ Preventing adverse drug events using clinical decision support systems]. / Verhindern von unerwünschten Arzneimittelereignissen mit Hilfe von elektronischen Entscheidungsunterstützungssystemen.

Adverse drug events pose a great risk to patients, are an everyday clinical problem and can have potential/ega/ consequences. Computerized physician order entry or computerized provider order entry (CPOE} in combination with clinical decision support systems {CDSS) are popular and aim to reduce prescribing errors as well as identifying potentially harmful drug drug interactions. The quantifiable benejit these systems bring to patients, has however, yet to be definitively proven. This article focusses on the current standpoint of CPOE-/CDSS, their risks and benefits, the potential for improvement and their perspectives for the future.