Reference no: EM133923715

Question

Clinical decision support (CDS) tools are intended to provide providers, staff, or patients with additional knowledge at the right time to enhance health care services (Clinical decision support, 2018). Electronic health record (EHR) systems that utilize CDS tools are said to benefit from better health outcomes, reduction of errors, and improved efficiency. However, I'm going to take a slightly different stance on this topic, providers generally dislike these tools. I manage an EHR system that on average has 500-600 concurrent users. In a previous course, CDS tools were examined and I was curious what providers think of these tools in real-time patient interactions. From a health informatics stance, I can see how taking relevant information from the chart such as a patient who has an allergy listed in their EHR record being prescribed a medication they are allergic to. When this happens a CDS tool in our EHR pop up to alert the provider that they are prescribing something that is contraindicated, this type of CDS tool has a positive impact because it allows the provider to make an informed decision about the risk versus benefit of prescribing the medication. This is the type of alert that can help to avoid errors or adverse events. Other tools such as alerts about blood pressure, weight, health maintenance, etc. slow providers down which are not ideal in patient care. The providers report they feel like the EHR is taking away their medical decision-making with CDS alerts of this type. As a result, they often ignore them. This can then have a negative impact on patient care because it results in alert fatigue where people just bypass all the carefully researched CDS tools their EHR has for them (Alert fatigue, 2018). I have seen this in action many times sitting in exam rooms observing EHR use and behavior. I see provider after provider clicks away the alerts dismissing them. Outside the exam room, away from the patient, when I ask the provider what the alerts said, I most often get responses that indicate they did not know nor do they care. There is a balance I feel can be achieved with CDS tools that can positively impact patient care where the alerts are more relevant and applicable to patient care. Otherwise, skipping these can have adverse effects when providers ignore the CDS tools given to them.

What do you agree and disagree with? What did you find interesting? What else might you add? Explain.