CPOE: Enhancing Patient Safety & Reducing Errors in Healthcare - Essay Sample

Introduction

Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) are tools that have recognition for highly increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations at the healthcare providers. This approach helps the nurses to change the workflow as well as enhancing the patient safety leading to its implementation at the health care facilities. The introduction of CPOE has led to the reduction of levels of medical errors among the practitioners in the course of the medication process (Mominah, S., Younus, F., & Househ, 2015). Due to the reduction in these errors, the nurses have succeeded in offering quality healthcare services to the patient based on the system requirements.

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Also, the use of CPOE significantly reduces the risks of clinical adverse drug effects as well as addressing the fatigue alerts among the patients under drugs. On the other hand, tracking medication safety is a drawback arising from the use of CPOE. Based on the aspect of possible system failures, the use of CPOE in medical records and diagnosis may lead to complicated processes in tracking medication records. In essence, inappropriate implementation of this system has chances of compromising the safety of the patients since its vulnerable to data misinterpretation.

Legal, Privacy, and Ethical Considerations of CPOE

The use of CPOE in healthcare comes with ethical, legal, and privacy concerns that affect the provision of healthcare services to the patients. Using computer-based systems in taking care of the patients reduces the chances of direct and personal interaction between the nurses and patients. Therefore, the sick feel ignored since the system creates a barrier to communication between them and the nurses (Melanie, 2017). Hence, this failure to communicate effectively leads to interference about the discussion on the ill-status of the people seeking treatment.

Administering treatment to the patients via CPOE may lead to the elevation of breach of their confidentiality. The paper records have a higher affinity to this breach of privacy. However, the new computerized system with privacy and system safety provisions will ensure the safety of the patients' data records, keeping them confidential. Moreover, the CPOE acts vigilantly in preventing authorized accessibility to the information about the patients from disgruntled acts such as password hacking. Hence, this system remains the best in keeping and safeguarding the patient information enhancing their privacy.

According to Melanie (2017), the widespread use of electronic systems by the healthcare providers, may promoter the existence of errors inpatient records and also enhancing the levels of malpractice liability. Besides, the challenges paperwork faces may be similar to those that CPOE also meets in its operations. There are a variety of areas that may lead to legal liability in the treatment and care for patients. Some shortcuts nurses use in completing tasks such as copy-pasting of data are likely to confuse the patients' records. The confusion arises since they may lift and repeat the previous records of different patients. More ethical concerns may occur in the health departments to failure or incomplete documentation of the patients' records. Moreover, more ethical concern over the use of CPOE in the healthcare system occurs when the Nursing Board engages in a practice that seeks to protect the image of their facility at the expense of the client's safety. Hence, the adoption of the electronic system within the health units may compromise the ethical concern of the healthcare provider.

References

Melanie, L., Balestra. (2017). Electronic Health Records: Patient Care and Ethical and Legal Implications for Nurse Practitioners. Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 105-111.

Mominah, S., Younus, F., & Househ, MS. (2015). A case study on the impacts of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system on hospital clinical workflow. MS Stud Health Technol Inform.