Researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, Calif.) demonstrate for the first time that a significant decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates can be associated with implementing CPOE.
The order entry system, which went live at Packard Children’s in 2007, was associated with a 20 percent decrease in mortality rates at the hospital over an 18-month period, according to a study published online in Pediatrics.
Prior to the report, no other hospital or medical institution had shown that implementing CPOE can lead to a decline in mortality, according to lead author Christopher Longhurst, M.D., medical director of clinical informatics at Packard Children’s and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford. The study found that CPOE was statistically correlated with fewer patient deaths.
Other Stanford/Packard Children’s authors on the study were: Christopher Dawes, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer; Jill Sullivan, R.N., vice president of hospital transformation; Christy Sandborg, M.D., professor of pediatric rheumatology and the hospital’s chief of staff; Jin Hahn, M.D., professor of pediatric neurology; and Eric Widen, administrative director of performance improvement at the hospital.
The Stanford University School of Medicine is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, a 312-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers.
