Electronic prescribing in paediatric secondary care: are harmful errors prevented?

Abstract

The aim of this research was to ascertain the effectiveness of current electronic prescribing (EP) systems to prevent a standardised set of paediatric prescribing errors likely to cause harm if they reach the patient. Semistructured survey. UK hospitals using EP in the paediatric setting. Number and type of erroneous orders able to be prescribed, and the level of clinical decision support (CDS) provided during the prescribing process. 90.7% of the erroneous orders were able to be prescribed across the seven different EP systems tested. Levels of CDS varied between systems and between sites using the same system. EP systems vary in their ability to prevent harmful prescribing errors in the hospital paediatric setting. Differences also occur between sites using the same system, highlighting the importance of how a system is set up and optimised.