Nr 599 Week 5 Assignment

NR 599 WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT This week we learned about the potential benefits and drawbacks to clinical decision support systems (CDSSs). Create a “Pros” versus “Cons” table with a column for “Pro” and a separate column for “Con”. Include at least 3 items for each column. Next to each item, provide a brief rationale as to why you included it on the respective list. Pros of CDSS Rationale Cons of CDSS Rationale Prevent medication errors or interactions Providers may be alerted when ordering a medication for a patient of interactions that the new drug may have with the ones they are currently taking. One study showed that the CDSS interventions steadily improve medication or drug-related outcome that could provide ancillary support for the progress of medication safety (Jia, Zhang, Chen, Zhao & Zhang, 2016). Information overload leading to alert or alarm fatigue CDSS can result in too many alerts to the provider since it analyzes all aspects of a problem which can result in the provide ignoring alerts since not all of the information presented is necessary for the provider. A study on the effectiveness of a CDSS, completed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, determined that incorrectly using a CDSS can be more dangerous than to not use the system at all (Mensah et al., 2015). Prevent unnecessary testing or duplicate testing The system may alert a provider of a patient’s recent hospital visit where they had lab work and a CT scan completed which the current provider was going to have ordered to complete. Instead of duplicate testing, the provider can review the results of the current test results completed. Challenges in collecting all data Providers must realize that not all data may be collected and because of this, the guidance of the CDSS may not be accurate. An example would be if a patient was prescribed medications by another provider and had not informed the provider they are currently seeing; they could order another medication with potential interactions or effects. Reminders for vaccine and preventative care Reminders to the provider for the patient’s vaccines and other care needed, such as a follow up for lab work prior to refilling a prescription, can prevent harm to the patient in the long run. An example of this is having a patient’s blood work completed prior to refilling a prescription such as lithium or warfarin. Cost of design and implementing as well as a possible design failure Creating these systems is a costly investment to providers and often challenging to meet the specific needs of the provider. If a provider is unsure how the CDSS is to help them or if given vague information could potentially result in a system design failure (Shahsavarani, Abadi, Kalkhoran, Jafari & Qaranli, 2015).