New survey, released by Wolters Kluwer Health (Booth #5501) during HIMSS10, finds that qualifying for stimulus funds and reducing costs are less meaningful than improved clinical outcomes
ATLANTA – March 1, 2010 – When it comes to order set utilization, financial drivers take a backseat to improved quality, safety and compliance, according to the findings of an independent national survey of hospital clinical and IT executives and C-level administrators released today at HIMSS10. The survey, conducted on behalf of Wolters Kluwer Health (Booth #5501), was designed to measure the prevalence and utilization patterns of, and satisfaction with, order sets and electronic order set solutions.
Eighty six percent of participating hospitals utilized order sets. Of those, 62 percent used paper-based order sets, including 83 percent who were actively considering the purchase of an electronic solution. Thirty eight percent used an electronic order set solution, two-thirds of which were integrated with CPOE/EMR.
Regardless of the order set environment, enhanced quality (54.9%) was the leading driver of order set usage, followed by advancing the practice of evidence-based medicine (52.8%), increased safety (49.5%) and improved compliance (45.7%). Financial drivers, including cost reductions (11.5%) and eligibility for stimulus funding (3.8%) ranked lowest.
“Eligibility for stimulus funds is a priority, but it is not driving hospitals’ decisions regarding the use of evidence-based order sets,” said Arvind Subramanian, President & CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. “Instead, their focus is on quality and safety. They also place a much higher value on ease-of-use and the ability to integrate with CPOE than on price.”
Among respondents utilizing an electronic order set solution, more than 56 percent indicated that integration with CPOE/EMR was a significant factor in their purchasing decision, followed by ease-of-use (47.4%). Price was ranked as significant by just 29.8 percent of respondents in this group.
Of those considering the purchase of an order set solution, ability to integrate was a significant consideration for 59.3 percent, followed by price (57.7%) and ease-of-use (56.5%).
All electronic order set solution users were unanimous in their rankings of clinical and administrative benefits, although those with integrated solutions ranked key benefits higher:
• Top clinical benefits: Standardized care processes (85% among integrated and 67.9% among non-integrated users); enhanced quality and safety (81.7% and 51.8%, respectively); and fewer complications and/or adverse events (40% and 32.1%)
• Top administrative benefits: Increased regulatory compliance (60% among integrated and 46.4% among non-integrated users); more efficient monitoring (56.5% and 37.5%); and higher physician satisfaction rates (40.9% and 28.6%)
“Though evidence-based order sets integrated with CPOE or EMR is the holy grail of advanced point-of-care clinical decision support, non-integrated users can still realize significant benefits from order set solution,” said Subramanian. “That is why ProVation® Order Sets, powered by UpToDate® Decision Support, on its own is a powerful tool for advancing the practice of evidence-based medicine. But it is also easily integrated with any facility or vendor clinical information system.”
ProVation Order Sets is an easily customizable order set authoring and management solution that provides flexible integration into clinical processes to streamline the delivery of standardized care for improved patient safety, outcomes, clinician performance and regulatory compliance. Built upon ProVation Medical’s award-winning, clinician-designed technology platform, ProVation Order Sets offer automatic linking to the superior clinical decision support content of UpToDate, the resource of choice for more than 360,000 clinicians.
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