The newly released report, Computerized Physician Order Entry in Community Hospitals: Lessons from the Field, jointly sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) of Oakland and First Consulting Group of Long Beach, CA, provides insights into how 10 community hospitals successfully adopted computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.
The report also shares the thoughts of physicians and project leaders on what it takes to succeed. Here are some of the commonly cited keys to success:
- The CEO is on board.
- Risk-taking capacity; leadership recognizes there will be bumps in the road and will be unwavering.
- There’s a mindset that CPOE is the right thing to do.
- There are sufficient resources — i.e., a realistic budget.
- There are cohesive medical staff, strong medical executive committee, and robust medical leadership — all on board with CPOE.
- There is a collaborative spirit of the medical staff, hospital administration, and information services (IS).
- Leadership of nursing and pharmacy are on board.
- There is experience with computer systems and heavy physician experience with those systems.
- There is a physician champion who is patient, dedicated, collaborative, sees the big picture, works well with clinical analysts, and gets actively involved.
- IS staff have a can-do work ethic, support for physician champion, strong collaboration, and some staff with clinical background.
The vendor implementation specialists provided insight with a slightly different slant — signs of likely success with CPOE. There are a number of striking similarities in their responses:
- Vision, support, and involvement start with upper management.
- The agenda is patient safety, and everyone understands that.
- CPOE is the top priority for the hospital.
- Medical leadership, rather than IS, owns the project.
- Involved, positive physician champion(s) already are in place.
- Community physicians have been part of the conversation from the beginning.
- Executives and project leaders have a realistic strategy for winning physician buy-in.
- Pharmacy, nursing, and the medical staff all are involved, show up at meetings, and have a positive, supportive attitude.
- Committees within the hospital have been successful in standardizing care before.
- IS works well with and is trusted by medical staff.
- Members of the IS staff have a strong clinical background.
- Physicians and nurses are comfortable using computers.
The newly released report, Computerized Physician Order Entry in Community Hospitals: Lessons from the Field, jointly sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) of Oakland and First Consulting Group of Long Beach, CA, provides insights into how 10 community hospitals successfully adopted computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.
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