Monday, November 06, 2006

New World Errors: More evidence that those wonderful computers that are supposed to do so much to eliminate medical errors may create more.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:01 PM

    "CONCLUSIONS. "Serious pediatric computer-related errors are uncommon (3.6 errors per 1000 patient-days), but computer systems can introduce some new pediatric medication errors that are not typically seen in a paper ordering system."

    I wonder if it would also be fair to say that serious pediatric written errors are uncommon, but handwriting can introduce some pediatric medication errors that are not typically seen in a computerized ordering system.

    I wonder if that was studied also.

    John Fembup

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  2. Raises a couple of questions, like, at what point are the likely (or even unlikely) errors in a CPOE system less bad than errors in a handwritten system, and, why didn't the system confirm that this was what the user wanted (or was confirmation one of the features that makes CPOE hard to use; ie, it confirms so many things that are yes,yes,yes that after a while you automatically answer yes when it should have been yes,no, NO DAMMIT!!!)

    But the killer, no pun intended, for me is the comment about having to work around the design of the system.

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