Move Ahead to ‘Meaningful Use’ of EMR With New Guide for Clinical Decision Support
This new step-by-step guide is a “portal to engagement in an important experiment in healthcare” that brings together individuals and organizations to improve medication management with CDS.
Chicago, IL, May 14, 2009 — In a collaborative effort focused on driving improvements in medication use and improved outcomes with CDS, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), with five co-publishers, introduces Improving Medication Use and Outcomes with Clinical Decision Support: A Step-by-Step Guide. Co-publishers include Scottsdale Institute, American Medical Informatics Association, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems.
Clinical decision support (CDS) interventions provide patients and clinicians with information needed to support care decisions. Examples include alerts about dangerous drug interactions or allergies, order sets that help ensure appropriate medications are ordered, and reference information to answer questions about drugs and diseases. When implemented properly, CDS is a powerful tool for improving care quality, safety and cost. Many organizations struggle to deploy CDS successfully, a goal that takes on new importance since effective CDS is a critical component of ‘meaningful EMR use,’ as required by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.
Nearly 100 individuals with diverse roles and expertise contributed to the new eight-chapter, 273-page CDS implementation guidebook. The book’s editor-in-chief, Jerome A. Osheroff, MD, FACP, FACMI, is chief clinical informatics officer, Thomson Reuters, and adjunct assistant professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Under Dr. Osheroff’s leadership, the project team used wikis and other collaboration tools to synthesize best practices for CDS implementation. The team is now working on a variety of follow-on efforts to continue multi-stakeholder efforts to fully leverage CDS in improving care delivery processes and outcomes.
The book is designed for anyone who is responsible for or participates in using CDS to improve medication use and outcomes. For example, organizational leads and teams focused on pharmacy (P&T Committee), quality and safety (CQO/PSO), nursing (CNO), medical staff (CMO), and information systems (CMIO/CIO), as well as physicians or practice managers in private practice with electronic prescribing initiatives underway. Feedback from scores of reviewers indicates that the guidance will be useful to organizations, from CDS novices to pioneers, and should also provide valuable insights for health IT vendors and consultants, as well as informatics trainees.
Each chapter begins with a “tasks” and “key lessons” summary, which provides a basic lessons-to-be-learned review before delving into the chapter’s detailed recommendations. The worksheets in each chapter help readers use the general guidance in formulating a customized CDS program for medication management in their own setting.
In addition to the scores of individuals and organizations that helped develop the guidebook, seven sponsors provided unrestricted grants to support content development: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Scottsdale Institute, Epic Systems Corporation, Advocate Health Care, Eclipsys Corp., Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, and Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (CSPI).
Introduced at HIMSS09 in Chicago in early April, Improving Medication Use and Outcomes with Clinical Decision Support: A Step-by-Step Guide is the latest guide in the HIMSS CDS series. In 2003, the Society published the Clinical Decision Support Implementer’s Workbook as a popular Web-based tool, followed in 2005 with a best-selling, award-winning book designed to assist healthcare organizations in using CDS to measurably improve care outcomes.
The preface to both the 2005 and 2009 guidebooks conclude in the same way: “For us, this book is not a finished work; rather, it is a springboard into a number of other activities designed to help CDS fulfill its original promise: to be a vitally important, routinely used tool that helps bring the best care to the largest number of patients. We hope you will continue to be our partners in the journey.”
Visit the online HIMSS Store to read more about Improving Medication Use and Outcomes with Clinical Decision Support: A Step-by-Step Guide and to order.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry’s membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States and the globe, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 350 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.