CPOE, bedside technology, and patient safety: a roundtable discussion.

Neuenschwander: Let me tell you how this roundtable discussion came about. I had a number of conversations with pharmacists at the June meeting about computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE). It occurred to me that, with Leapfrog pressing so hard for CPOE, hospitals are almost feeling guilty or embarrassed for not having CPOE or not being ready to have it. And yet when I would talk to pharmacists, I began to hear a common theme: We all believe that CPOE is important, but it is far more complicated than we expected. The medication-use process begins with prescribing, then pharmacy review, then dispensing and distribution, and ends with the actual medication administration and charting. Among these steps, I believe that the middle one—dispensing and distribution—has the most mature technologies. Overall, I think the technological applications in the medication-use process are still in their adolescence. They’re gangly, and they look more mature than they are. The limits are not so much with the mechanical technologies themselves as with the human interface with the CPOE, bedside technology, and patient safety: A roundtable discussion