Clinical Decision Support Systems
Please create discussion/response to the following:
Clinical Decision Support Systems
Pros
Cons
· Early Warning System: According to Jimenez (2018), early warning signs in electronic health records can improve patient outcomes and enhance the quality of care.
· Alert Fatigue: Many important alerts are dismissed due to the number of alerts health care workers see daily.
· Medication allergy check: The medication allergy clinical decision support system is beneficial to patient care as it cross-references patient allergies with medications ordered and will flag the provider of any concerns.
· Lack of availability of disease-specific clinical decision support systems: There are many clinical decision support systems for common diagnosis such as SEPSIS, but few for chronic conditions.
· Decrease costs of healthcare: Clinical decision support systems allow providers to be alerted if a test was recently performed which decreases duplicate testing, decreasing the cost of healthcare.
· Research barriers: Van Wilk et al. (2019) suggests there are barriers that may not trigger clinical decision support systems including language barriers, and provider and patient corporation.
In my current role as a dermatology nurse practitioner, at the end of a busy shift, I had a young adult patient with severe adult acne. On assessment, white pustules covered the forehead and chin area, the patient was distraught at her appearance as she is getting married in two months. The patient wanted something to clear her face up fast. In my practice, I know the quickest acne regimen includes isotretinoin. I immediately promise the patient that I can help her with the acne and prescribe the isotretinoin, not thinking of the patients’ upcoming life events and being within child-bearing age. When I get to the computer to input the medication order, the clinical decision support system alert notifies me that the patient requires two negative pregnancies before the patient can take the medication a the medication is toxic in pregnancies. I go back in the room and explain this to the patient, where she states she is two months pregnant and that is why she is getting married. The clinical decision support system alerted me of the pregnancy test requirement, saving the patient from a mediation that could cause harm to her baby.
References:
Jimenez, M. (2018). Effects of clinical decision support systems in preventing postoperative complications. Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association. 149-153. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=134109937&site=eds-live&scope=site
(Links to an external site.)
Van Wijk, Y., Halilaj, I., van Limbergen, E., Walsh, S., Lutgens, L., Lambin, P., Vanneste, B. G. L. (2019). Decision support systems in prostate cancer treatment: an overview. BioMed Research International. 1-10. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c8h&AN=136835672&site=eds-live&scope=site
