News Feature | August 26, 2014

Meaningful Use Lowers Adverse Drug Events

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

MU Lowers Adverse Drug Interactions

Meaningful Use IT has shown to result in fewer adverse drug events and improve patient safety.

Implementing Meaningful Use IT requirements can lead to a reduction in adverse drug events (ADEs) according to a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. EHR Intelligence reports the study found hospitals that adopted all five of the core medication management measures inherent in meaningful use experienced significantly fewer ADEs.

According to the Health IT Buzz blog, the five medication management measures that make a difference are:

  • using computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems for medication orders
  • implementing decision support systems to check for drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions
  • having the capability to electronically exchange key clinical information (such as medication lists, medication allergies, and test results) with other providers
  • maintaining an active medication list, and
  • maintaining an active medication allergy list

The study, Meaningful Use IT reduces hospital-caused adverse drug events even at challenged hospitals, found that adopting these five measures led to a 52 percent reduction in ADEs.

“More than one-third (37.9 percent) of hospitals perceived that their top two challenges related to medication management; they had an adverse drug event rate of 2.25 percent,” Health IT Buzz says.  “The next highest rate, at 1.72 percent, was among hospitals that had not adopted any of the five medication management measures.  Low-quality hospitals, identified by Medicare’s Hospital Compare database, had an adverse drug event rate of 1.65 percent, followed by hospitals where physician resistance was high (1.61 percent). The lowest adverse drug event rate (1.36 percent) was seen in hospitals that adopted all five medication management measures, followed by hospitals that were ranked by Hospital Compare as high quality (1.37 percent).”

The blog also points out that the results may reflect only the early stages of EHR implementation since the data analyzed in the study is from 2010. At this time, less than 10 percent of providers had adopted all five of the critical measures.