Medication order entry and clinical decision support: current nursing informatics issues

Abstract

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has greatly increased the acceptance of electronic health record technology by providing incentives and punishment standards. A key criterion of the HITECH Act, meaningful use, has vendors clamoring to design clinical decision support (CDS) systems that fulfill this objective. Users should be aware that more emphasis may be placed on achieving the goals for compliance than on working out details that are clinically meaningful. Nurses can play a crucial rule in collaboratively supporting CDS initiative changes that make patient care more effective and efficient.

Keywords: Clinical decision support; Medication order entry systems; Patient safety; Technology.