@article{4903,
  keywords = {CPOE, chemotherapy, interrupted time series, prescribing errors},
  author = {K. Elsaid and T. Truong and M. Monckeberg and H. McCarthy and J. Butera and C. Collins},
  title = {Impact of electronic chemotherapy order forms on prescribing errors at an urban medical center: results from an interrupted time-series analysis.},
  abstract = {<p><b>OBJECTIVE: </b>To evaluate the impact of electronic standardized chemotherapy templates on incidence and types of prescribing errors.</p><p><b>DESIGN: </b>A quasi-experimental interrupted time series with segmented regression.</p><p><b>SETTING: </b>A 700-bed multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital with an ambulatory cancer center.</p><p><b>PARTICIPANTS: </b>A multidisciplinary team including oncology physicians, nurses, pharmacists and information technologists.</p><p><b>INTERVENTION(S): </b>Standardized, regimen-specific, chemotherapy prescribing forms were developed and implemented over a 32-month period.</p><p><b>MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): </b>Trend of monthly prevented prescribing errors per 1000 chemotherapy doses during the pre-implementation phase (30 months), immediate change in the error rate from pre-implementation to implementation and trend of errors during the implementation phase. Errors were analyzed according to their types: errors in communication or transcription, errors in dosing calculation and errors in regimen frequency or treatment duration. Relative risk (RR) of errors in the post-implementation phase (28 months) compared with the pre-implementation phase was computed with 95% confidence interval (CI).</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Baseline monthly error rate was stable with 16.7 prevented errors per 1000 chemotherapy doses. A 30% reduction in prescribing errors was observed with initiating the intervention. With implementation, a negative change in the slope of prescribing errors was observed (coefficient = -0.338; 95% CI: -0.612 to -0.064). The estimated RR of transcription errors was 0.74; 95% CI (0.59-0.92). The estimated RR of dosing calculation errors was 0.06; 95% CI (0.03-0.10). The estimated RR of chemotherapy frequency/duration errors was 0.51; 95% CI (0.42-0.62).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS: </b>Implementing standardized chemotherapy-prescribing templates significantly reduced all types of prescribing errors and improved chemotherapy safety.</p>},
  year = {2013},
  journal = {Int J Qual Health Care},
  volume = {25},
  pages = {656-63},
  month = {12/2013},
  issn = {1464-3677},
  doi = {10.1093/intqhc/mzt067},
  language = {eng},
}