Emory Case

Change of any sort can be difficult but more so for an industry that has been doing something the same way for about a century. Emory Healthcare was founded in 1905 and, although they made some small IT advances in the 90s, used the same way of order processing until around 2005. When President Obama and congress made it a focus to enhance health information technology by enacting a stimulus package that invested $19 billion in the area. This change was met with resistance but Computerized Provider Order Entry Systems (CPOEs) were made with the goal of reducing adverse drug events and making the process more efficient as a whole.

Emory Healthcare is the largest health care system in Georgia so the overhaul that they experienced was on a large scale. They have 4 hospitals with 1,184 licensed patient beds along with 9,000 employees. Whenever you implement a change that will affect people on this big of a scale there will definitely be some hurdles. In the past, physicians would write patient orders on order sheets or have nurses do it for them. Nurses were supposed to read back the order and physicians would sign off if it was correct but there were some instances where the physician would sign off on it after the order was filled. This could create some errors because of miscommunication and was not an efficient way of filling orders but was what they were used to for so long.

CPOEs changed this process and put the responsibility mostly on the physician. This may have caused some unwanted work for the physician but was a much needed advancement. The physician or another provider with the correct privileges would enter the orders on the hospital computers. The physician could put in orders from anywhere with internet access which made things more efficient. The implementation of this was met with mixed reactions. Some liked the customization but other less technologically savvy physicians saw it as a hindrance to their work.

The value of CPOEs is still debated but most healthcare employees would agree that it is a needed and important step for our healthcare system. Adapting to the digital world will be easier and easier as the years go on because almost everyone has some sort of understanding about technology. Studies have shown that they do reduce adverse drug events but they are not conclusive. They can also cause different kinds of errors not seen in written orders. The investment in health information technology should be continued as more advances arise making it easier for patients to get quality care.