Report: Electronic Order Sets Have Greatest Impact According to Providers

Although providers can use a variety of tools to improve electronic clinical decision support (CDS), 38 percent indicated that electronic order sets are having the greatest impact on their organization, according to a recent report from the Orem, Utah-based KLAS. Evidence-based alerts and reference content were also mentioned as most impactful by 19 percent and 10 percent of providers, respectively.

The report, "Clinical Decision Support: Striving for More Intelligent Care," outlines current provider activity in five key electronic CDS areas: order sets, multi-parameter alerting, nursing care plans, reference content, and drug information databases. The report also highlights the third-party (non-EMR) vendors that providers are turning to for help with CDS content and development.

Providers were most likely to turn to a third party for drug information databases, reference content, and order sets, and least likely to use an outside vendor for multi-parameter alerting. Those that used third-party content for order sets reported varying levels of difficulty integrating that content into their core clinical system. Providers also reported a variety of strategies for tackling real time surveillance of at-risk patients, ranging from infection control systems to non-electronic processes.

Many providers mentioned that, due to focusing primarily on meeting meaningful use Stage 1 CDS requirements, they do not have clear CDS plans beyond Stage 1.