Drug safety alert generation and overriding in a large Dutch university medical centre. van der Sijs, H., Mulder, A., van Gelder, T., Aarts, J., Berg, M., & Vulto, A. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 18(10):941–947, October, 2009.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
PURPOSE: To evaluate numbers and types of drug safety alerts generated and overridden in a large Dutch university medical centre. METHODS: A disguised observation study lasting 25 days on two internal medicine wards evaluating alert generation and handling of alerts. A retrospective analysis was also performed of all drug safety alerts overridden in the hospital using pharmacy log files over 24 months. RESULTS: In the disguised observation study 34% of the orders generated a drug safety alert of which 91% were overridden. The majority of alerts generated (56%) concerned drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and these were overridden more often (98%) than overdoses (89%) or duplicate orders (80%). All drug safety alerts concerning admission medicines were overridden.Retrospective analysis of pharmacy log files for all wards revealed one override per five prescriptions. Of all overrides, DDIs accounted for 59%, overdoses 24% and duplicate orders 17%. DDI alerts of medium-level seriousness were overridden more often (55%) than low-level (22%) or high-level DDIs (19%). In 36% of DDI overrides, it would have been possible to monitor effects by measuring serum levels. The top 20 of overridden DDIs accounted for 76% of all DDI overrides. CONCLUSIONS: Drug safety alerts were generated in one third of orders and were frequently overridden. Duplicate order alerts more often resulted in order cancellation (20%) than did alerts for overdose (11%) or DDIs (2%). DDIs were most frequently overridden. Only a small number of DDIs caused these overrides. Studies on improvement of alert handling should focus on these frequently-overridden DDIs.
@article{van_der_sijs_drug_2009,
	title = {Drug safety alert generation and overriding in a large {Dutch} university medical centre},
	volume = {18},
	issn = {1099-1557},
	doi = {10.1002/pds.1800},
	abstract = {PURPOSE: To evaluate numbers and types of drug safety alerts generated and overridden in a large Dutch university medical centre.
METHODS: A disguised observation study lasting 25 days on two internal medicine wards evaluating alert generation and handling of alerts. A retrospective analysis was also performed of all drug safety alerts overridden in the hospital using pharmacy log files over 24 months.
RESULTS: In the disguised observation study 34\% of the orders generated a drug safety alert of which 91\% were overridden. The majority of alerts generated (56\%) concerned drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and these were overridden more often (98\%) than overdoses (89\%) or duplicate orders (80\%). All drug safety alerts concerning admission medicines were overridden.Retrospective analysis of pharmacy log files for all wards revealed one override per five prescriptions. Of all overrides, DDIs accounted for 59\%, overdoses 24\% and duplicate orders 17\%. DDI alerts of medium-level seriousness were overridden more often (55\%) than low-level (22\%) or high-level DDIs (19\%). In 36\% of DDI overrides, it would have been possible to monitor effects by measuring serum levels. The top 20 of overridden DDIs accounted for 76\% of all DDI overrides.
CONCLUSIONS: Drug safety alerts were generated in one third of orders and were frequently overridden. Duplicate order alerts more often resulted in order cancellation (20\%) than did alerts for overdose (11\%) or DDIs (2\%). DDIs were most frequently overridden. Only a small number of DDIs caused these overrides. Studies on improvement of alert handling should focus on these frequently-overridden DDIs.},
	language = {eng},
	number = {10},
	journal = {Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety},
	author = {van der Sijs, Heleen and Mulder, Alexandra and van Gelder, Teun and Aarts, Jos and Berg, Marc and Vulto, Arnold},
	month = oct,
	year = {2009},
	pmid = {19579216},
	keywords = {Academic Medical Centers, Decision Support Systems, Clinical, Drug Interactions, Drug Overdose, Drug Prescriptions, Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted, Hospital Units, Humans, Internal Medicine, Medical Order Entry Systems, Medication Errors, Netherlands, Pharmacy Service, Hospital, Reminder Systems, Retrospective Studies, Time Factors},
	pages = {941--947}
}

Downloads: 0