Chapter 10 Clinical Decision Support Systems in Healthcare Questions and Correct Answers

Why are clinical decision support systems (CDSS)important? By providing the right information to the right person at the right time, CDSS can support effective clinical decision making and improve clinical care. Goal: A safer healthcare One of the central goals of health IT has always been to help clinicians in the decision-making process to prevent errors, maximize efficiency, enable evidence-based care, and to ultimately improve health and healthcare. Healthcare errors can be prevented- especially using process improvement measures enabled by technology and CDS tools What is clinical decision support? A variety of tools and interventions that provide clinicians with knowledge and person-specific information presented at an appropriate time to enhance health care. Guides nursing care by providing key information at key times Patient care decision-making Reminders about specific care needs (e.g. patient due an immunization) Alerts about specific care actions that may impose a risk to the patient (e.g. medication interactions) Providing helpful views of a patient's record that help better understand the status of the patient (e.g. patient dashboards) Tools that assist in implementing and documenting decisions more efficiently and accurately (e.g. order sets, medication reconciliation tools)Clinician access to patient-specific reference information available in online knowledge resources (e.g. links to external sites) Access to information about similar patients in the population along with their treatments and outcomes Advanced analytics to estimate risks for a specific individual, such as risk for hospital readmissions, cardiovascular events, and risk for falls Medication dosing support Tools that assist clinician in finding and monitoring the most