Cerner to make EHR a reality at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Using Cerner Corp.'s healthcare information technology (IT), the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh will meet its goal of an electronic health record (EHR) by 2007.

The 235-bed hospital launched Children'sNet, an EHR and CPOE (computerized physician order entry) system, in October 2002. Since the implementation, the healthcare provider notes the technology has cut medication errors in half, decreased medication delivery times and expedited regulatory compliance.

Children's says all the hospital's physicians have met the CPOE system training requirements, resulting in approximately 1,100 physicians using CPOE. Children's now has 610 order sets that aid the ordering clinician's recall and help standardize ordering, communication and best practices throughout the institution.

Another benefit of CPOE at Children's was the ability to gain control of several compliance issues. For example, Pennsylvania regulations require that any order be co-signed within 24 hours. With CPOE, timed alerts now remind physicians to sign any orders that require co-signature. As a result, sign-off rates initially rose from 75 percent and then reached 97 percent.

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