Dr. Christopher Longhurst, a board-certified hospitalist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses the association between CPOE and hospital mortality rates.  In 2003, a white paper from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement identified remarkable variability in standardized mortality rates across US hospitals. Seven years later, Dr. Longhurst and fellow physicians published a peer-reviewed paper showing that their computerized physician order entry (CPOE) rollout was significantly associated with decreased mortality rates.

Health information technology has been widely touted as a tool to help improve quality and patient safety, and while a retrospective correlation does not prove causation, this is one more piece of evidence suggesting that CPOE is the best way to provide high-quality care for our inpatients.

To learn more about this topic:Decrease in Hospital-wide Mortality Rate after Implementation of a Commercially Sold Computerized Physician Order Entry System - Christopher A. Longhurst, MD, MS; Layla Parast, MS; Christy I. Sandborg, MD; Eric Widen, MHA; Jill Sullivan, RN, MSN; Jin S. Hahn, MD; Christopher G. Dawes, MBA; Paul J. Sharek, MD, MPH.

Mixed Results in the Safety Performance of Computerized Physician Order Entry- Jane Metzger; Emily Welebob; David W. Bates; Stuart Lipsitz; David C. Classen.