Mount Auburn Hospital: Physician Order Entry (POE)
Introduction
* 1.3 million injuries occurred annually in 1991 * 69% are partially due to errors in patient management * 13% of these resulted in patient’s death
Computerised Physician Order Entry

Mount Auburn saw computerised POE as a critical patient-safety tool.
Current system: Paper based and verbal communication
Common errors in current system * Simple miscommunication of the drug order * Messy handwriting, confusion between names etc… * Lack of knowledge about drugs and patients * Rule violations, slips and memory lapses
Advantages of POE
When a physician places an order, all the relevant information are shown such as 1) Lab test results 2) Medication the patient is currently on 3) Allergic history etc.. * Everything is in real time – info about new drugs in the market, research finding, patient files * Reduced faulty drug identity checking – name mismatch problem solved * rule violations could also be lower – enhanced monitoring * ordering more streamlined * Reduced transcription error – handwriting issue solved
All these will bring greater name to the hospital as the error rates will increase -> one of the Leapfrog’s recommendation is “Evidence-based Hospital referral”, hence this will generate positive name for the hospital.
CRM could also be improved as the customer will be more satisfied with lesser errors and reduced cost due to increased efficiencies.

Current Plan: how to implement CPOE * Launch the new system in hospital’s labour and delivery unit * Relatively calm environment to introduce the new system * How much training is needed? * How quickly the system be upgraded? * Performance measurement of the system * Launch in other departments after successful launch