@article{9149,
  author = {Michael Saginur and Ian D. Graham and Alan J. Forster and Michel Boucher and George A. Wells},
  title = {The uptake of technologies designed to influence medication safety in Canadian hospitals.},
  abstract = {<p><b>BACKGROUND: </b>There are many technologies designed to improve medication safety. Although limited evidence supports their use, there are pressures to implement them.</p><p><b>OBJECTIVE: </b>To determine the uptake of technologies designed to improve medication safety, plans for adopting technologies, attitudes towards technology use, and perceptions of medication error. Methods We performed a cross-sectional survey of pharmacy directors at Canada's 100 largest acute-care hospitals.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Seventy-eight per cent of surveyed hospitals responded. Responding hospitals averaged 499 beds and 29% were teaching facilities. Hospital frequently used clinical pharmacy services (97% of hospitals), pharmacy-based intravenous admixture services (81%), computerized decision support modules for pharmacy order entry systems (77%), unit-dose drug distribution systems (75%) and computerized medication administration records (67%). Hospitals infrequently used bar-coding (9% of hospitals) and computerized physician order entry (9%). A majority of respondents and hospitals favoured expanded use of new technologies and planned for increased uptake. Respondents chose as their hospital's next investment: automated dispensing (33%), bar-coding (25%) and computerized physician order entry (12%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION: </b>Canadian hospitals appear poised to make sizeable investments in poorly evaluated technologies that address medication safety.</p>},
  year = {2008},
  journal = {J Eval Clin Pract},
  volume = {14},
  pages = {27-35},
  month = {02/2008},
  issn = {1365-2753},
  doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2753.2007.00780.x},
  language = {eng},
}