CHCF Awards Grant to Study Computer System’s Impact on Reducing Medication Errors
The California HealthCare Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have awarded a grant to the Leapfrog Group, a consortium of about 80 firms working to improve health care safety, to develop testing criteria to evaluate the efficacy of CPOE, the computer-based physicians order entry system. Intended to reduce medication errors, CPOE screens physicians' prescription orders for "erroneous" information, while allowing doctors to amend the orders before they are "finalized." Current research indicates that CPOE would "significantly reduce" the number of errors and their resulting costs. The Leapfrog Group is working with First Consulting Group, which provides integration and management services for the health care industry, on the project. Dr. Arnie Milstein, head of standards development for the Leapfrog Group, said, "This grant is a step in strengthening the validity of our CPOE standard" (Leapfrog Group release, 4/19).
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