Study: e-prescribing prevents errors even if doctors override most alerts

Here's an item sure to bring cheers from vendors, CMIOs and others who believe in the power of health IT to improve care: Researchers from Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found that drug interaction alerts in ambulatory e-prescribing systems are effective at preventing adverse drug events and reducing medical costs--even when there is strong evidence of what's often dubbed "alert fatigue."

A new study, published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that alerts popped up in 7.3 percent of e-prescribing attempts. Even though physicians overrode an eye-popping 91.1 percent of the 279,476 alerts studied from Massachusetts prescription data in the first half of 2006, the Dana-Farber researchers found that the technology helped prevent 402 adverse drug events. Alerts that were accepted likely prevented three deaths, 14 permanent disabilities and 31 instances of temporary disability. The alerts may have prevented 39 hospital admissions, kept 34 people out of emergency rooms and avoided 267 physician office visits, for an overall savings of $402,619.

For more:
- peruse this HealthDay News story, via Modern Medicine
- read the actual study from Archives of Internal Medicine

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