For this assignment, select one clinical practice issue that involves a specific medication. Using a Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system, design a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that would be embedded in the EHR at your site of practice. Your CDSS must connect with CPOE to include a medication. You must link these two applications within the design.
General Guidelines:
Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:
- APA style for their writing assignments.
- This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
- You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
Directions:
Write a 1,000-1,250 word paper that provides the following:
- Specific details of the clinical issue involving a specific medication
- The rationale behind your design development.
- A description of how this CDSS will be implemented and adopted by fellow clinicians.
- An explanation detailing how patient outcomes will be measured.
- An assessment of challenges and proposed solutions which might apply to this scenario (e.g., information loss, communication breakdown).
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
The use of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) has become increasingly important in healthcare, especially when it comes to medication management. As a medical professor, I understand the significance of designing CDSS to address clinical practice issues. In this paper, I will describe a clinical practice issue involving a specific medication and design a CDSS that would be embedded in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) at a site of practice.
Answer:
The clinical issue that I have chosen involves the use of opioids for pain management. Opioids have been widely used for the treatment of pain, but their widespread use has led to the opioid epidemic, resulting in opioid-related deaths and addiction. A significant challenge in opioid management is ensuring that the prescriber follows the appropriate guidelines when prescribing opioids to reduce the risk of addiction and overdose.
The CDSS that will be developed aims to improve prescribing practices by integrating evidence-based guidelines and the patient’s data into the prescribing decision process. The system will be embedded in the CPOE system which will enable clinicians to access medication-related information and guidelines before prescribing opioids to patients.
To implement and adopt this CDSS, a comprehensive training program will be initiated to educate physicians and healthcare workers on opioid prescribing. The CDSS will be integrated into the clinical workflow to make it easier for clinicians to access the system. The adoption of this system can be monitored using various indicators such as the reduction in the number of opioid-related deaths, the number of opioid prescriptions, and the improved management of opioid addiction.
To measure patient outcomes, patient satisfaction surveys can be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the CDSS in improving pain management and the reduction of adverse effects of opioids. The system will also be evaluated based on its ability to prevent opioid-related harm and maximize clinical benefits.
The major challenge in implementing this CDSS is ensuring that it does not increase the clinician’s workload or cause alert fatigue. Ensuring that the CDSS does not disrupt clinical workflows and that it is user-friendly would improve its adoption. Providing education and training to clinicians on the use of CDSS would help reduce information loss and communication breakdown.
Conclusion:
The development of a CDSS to address the clinical practice issue of opioid prescription is essential in improving pain management and reducing opioid-related harm. Integrating CDSS into CPOE systems has the potential to reduce the risk of opioid addiction, overdose, and mortality. The proposed CDSS can be implemented effectively with the proper training of clinicians and the development of a comprehensive adoption strategy.
