Title: Impact of computerised provider order entry system on nursing workflow, patient safety, and medication errors: perspectives from the front line

Authors: Fatimah Alsweed; Anwar Alshaikh; Anwar Ahmed; Faisel Yunus; Mowafa Househ

Addresses: Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 22490, 11426, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 22490, 11426, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 22490, 11426, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 22490, 11426, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 22490, 11426, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: There is a paucity of research on the impact of computerised provider order entry (CPOE) system on the front line staff. We assessed nurses perspectives of the impact of CPOE system implementation on their workflow, patient safety and medication errors in a Saudi Arabian hospital. We conducted a cross-sectional survey involving 112 nurses between April and May 2012. The workflow was easy to manage for nurses who rated CPOE training as of good quality (p = 0.001) and they found that CPOE helped in reducing medication errors (p = 0.001). The nurses who rated CPOE training as of good quality also stated that patient safety was better with CPOE implementation and its use (p < 0.05). Provision of adequate CPOE training improves nurses' perception of the system's role in their workflow, patient safety and medication errors, and is critical in the success of CPOE use and its long-term adoption.

Keywords: CPOE impact; CPOE training; nursing workflow; medication errors; patient safety; user satisfaction; Saudi Arabia; computerised order entry systems; nurses; provider order entry systems; user perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2014.064328

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.287 - 300

Received: 28 May 2013
Accepted: 23 Sep 2013
Published online: 18 Aug 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article