1) What problems are hospitals and physicians encountering in diagnosis diseases and prescribing medications? What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these problems?
Hospitals and physicians are encountering medication errors which have led to injuries and death. Mostly resulting in inappropriate prescriptions, dosages and patient-monitoring strategies, these errors can be very costly and damaging to a hospital and/or physician. Research has found that most of these errors have resulted from human factors such as poor handwriting, memory lapses, fatigue and distractions, compounded by the sheer complexity of available medications. In addition to medication errors, physicians have been challenged with properly diagnosing medical conditions after gathering and reviewing diagnostic tests. Consequently, computerized physician order entry and diagnostic decision support software is being developed to reduce the occurrences of medication and patient diagnosis errors.
2)Are CPOE and DDS systems appropriate solutions? Why or why not? What management, technology, and organization issues are involved in the use of these systems?
CPOE and DDS systems should be utilized by nurses and physicians as an extra diagnosis and medication resource to insure that they have not missed anything. With the myriad of over the counter and prescription medications out there and the vast amount of diseases, a structured, computerized system can serve as additional knowledge/resources for a physician.
Once the CPOE and DDS technology is finely tuned and the glitches have been worked out, it can serve as a tool to reduce liability associated with medical malpractice and can make healthcare delivery more efficient. Successful implementation of these systems has many advantages such as improved communication between nurses and doctors, saves time for doctors, clarity of medication orders resulting in an estimated 25% less occurrence of adverse drug reactions.
3) What obstacles prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry? How can these obstacles be removed?
A couple of obstacles prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry. First off, many physicians, proud as they are, may not be inclined to allow computer systems to make decisions for them. Their pride, egos and expertise may get in the way of the implementation of such systems, especially for older, less computer savvy doctors. Another obstacle that complicates the implementation of such a system is that it requires significant amounts of time to input all the medical data for a given hospital. This data entry aspect is also prone to human error and is very time consuming.
These obstacles can be overcome by implementing rigorous training programs to doctors, nurses, administrators and data entry personnel. A sustained training effort for appropriate staff prior to its implementation at a hospital may build confidence in their users and reduce the likelihood of errors. Furthermore, comprehensive training and educational programs for physicians should emphasize that the computer systems should act as a tool to compliment their art.
Sources: Management Information Systems Managing the Digital Firm, tenth edition. pgs. 505-507. Laudon, Kenneth C.
