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Effect of number of open charts on intercepted wrong-patient medication orders in an emergency department.
Kannampallil TG, Manning JD, Chestek DW, et al. Effect of number of open charts on intercepted wrong-patient medication orders in an emergency department. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2018;25(6):739-743. doi:10.1093/jamia/ocx099.
Opening multiple patients' charts in the electronic medical record simultaneously may increase the risk of wrong-patient orders, a known patient safety hazard. Researchers analyzed intercepted wrong-patient medication orders in an emergency department over a 6-year period and found no significant reduction when the maximum number of charts allowed to be open at the same time decreased from 4 to 2. Similarly, there was no significant increase when the maximum number of charts permitted to be open simultaneously increased from 2 to 4.
