ContextDevelopers of health care software have attributed improvements in patient
care to these applications. As with any health care intervention, such claims
require confirmation in clinical trials.ObjectivesTo review controlled trials assessing the effects of computerized clinical
decision support systems (CDSSs) and to identify study characteristics predicting
benefit.Data SourcesWe updated our earlier reviews by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane
Library, Inspec, and ISI databases and consulting reference lists through
September 2004. Authors of 64 primary studies confirmed data or provided additional
information.Study SelectionWe included randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials that evaluated
the effect of a CDSS compared with care provided without a CDSS on practitioner
performance or patient outcomes.Data ExtractionTeams of 2 reviewers independently abstracted data on methods, setting,
CDSS and patient characteristics, and outcomes.Data SynthesisOne hundred studies met our inclusion criteria. The number and methodologic
quality of studies improved over time. The CDSS improved practitioner performance
in 62 (64%) of the 97 studies assessing this outcome, including 4 (40%) of
10 diagnostic systems, 16 (76%) of 21 reminder systems, 23 (62%) of 37 disease
management systems, and 19 (66%) of 29 drug-dosing or prescribing systems.
Fifty-two trials assessed 1 or more patient outcomes, of which 7 trials (13%)
reported improvements. Improved practitioner performance was associated with
CDSSs that automatically prompted users compared with requiring users to activate
the system (success in 73% of trials vs 47%; P = .02)
and studies in which the authors also developed the CDSS software compared
with studies in which the authors were not the developers (74% success vs
28%; respectively, P = .001).ConclusionsMany CDSSs improve practitioner performance. To date, the effects on
patient outcomes remain understudied and, when studied, inconsistent.

Effects of computerized clinical decision support systems on practitioner performance and patient outcomes: a systematic review.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of medication adherence on healthcare utilization and cost for 4 chronic conditions that are major drivers of drug spending: diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and congestive heart failure. Research Design: The authors conducted a retrospective cohort observation of patients who were continuously enrolled in medical and prescription benefit plans from June 1997 through May 1999. Patients were identified for disease-specific analysis based on claims for outpatient, emergency room, or inpatient services during the first 12 months of the study. Using an integrated analysis of administrative claims data, medical and drug utilization were measured during the 12-month period after patient identification. Medication adherence was defined by days’ supply of maintenance medications for each condition. Patients: The study consisted of a population-based sample of 137,277 patients under age 65. Measures: Disease-related and all-cause medical costs, drug costs, and hospitalization risk were measured. Using regression analysis, these measures were modeled at varying levels of medication adherence. Results: For diabetes and hypercholesterolemia, a high level of medication adherence was associated with lower disease-related medical costs. For these conditions, higher medication costs were more than offset by medical cost reductions, producing a net reduction in overall healthcare costs. For diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension, cost offsets were observed for all-cause medical costs at high levels of medication adherence. For all 4 conditions, hospitalization rates were significantly lower for patients with high medication adherence. Conclusions: For some chronic conditions, increased drug utilization can provide a net economic return when it is driven by improved adherence with guidelines-based therapy.

http://innovamedicaldesign.com/studies/Impact_of_Medication_Adherence.pdf

Impact of medication adherence on hospitalization risk and healthcare cost.

The purpose of this book is to provide nurses with the best available research, thereby enabling better decisions that result in improved health care and safety practices and lead to better outcomes. Nurses often are the ones who find errors and prevent pa tient harm. In their focus on patient safety, nurses identify critical issues and research for evidence-based practice. This book is a great resource for practicing nurses, nurse educators, re searchers, leaders, and students. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality strongly promotes that safety and quality of health care is dependent on the availability of the best research possible and the ability to deliver results of research into the hands of practitioners, policy makers, and consumers. This text is a culmination of subject expert knowledge, practice, and research from 89 contributors who represent a broad range of nurses and senior researchers across the nation. The topics covered in this text provide excellent background for any clinician, nurse educator, or nurse leader. The topics include • evidence-based practice, • patient-centered care, • working environment for nurses, • care models, and • patient acuity. The chapters provide an easy-tounderstand guide and include a background section and analysis of the literature based on the topic presented. Practice implications are identified at the end of each chapter and guide efforts for improving quality and patient care. Research implications for each topic outline target areas for improvement and can be used by clinicians to inform and guide practice. There are also questions and issues to develop or expand thesis topics and research papers, which faculty members may find useful. A section on critical opportunities contains current topics, including wrong site surgery, communication hand offs by nurses, medication administration safety, medication reconciliation, and personal safety for nurses. These topics are very well presented with numerous research citations and examples from all areas of nursing— from patient entry to the facility to discharge and home care. The authors use exhibits, tables, guides, templates, models, and representations within each chapter and conclude with a list of references including web sites for further independent review and citation. The volumes are written in a manner that allows for quick access, and they are

Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses

A review of uses of health care utilization databases for epidemiologic research on therapeutics

Appropriate prescribing in elderly people: how well can it be measured and optimised?

ContextRising costs of medications and inequities in access have sparked calls
for drug policy reform in the United States and Canada. Control of drug expenditures
by prescription cost-sharing for elderly persons and poor persons is a contentious
issue because little is known about the health impact in these subgroups.ObjectivesTo determine (1) the impact of introducing prescription drug cost-sharing
on use of essential and less essential drugs among elderly persons and welfare
recipients and (2) rates of emergency department (ED) visits and serious adverse
events associated with reductions in drug use before and after policy implementation.Design and SettingInterrupted time-series analysis of data from 32 months before and 17
months after introduction of a prescription coinsurance and deductible cost-sharing
policy in Quebec in 1996. Separate 10-month prepolicy control and postpolicy
cohort studies were conducted to estimate the impact of the drug reform on
adverse events.ParticipantsA random sample of 93 950 elderly persons and 55 333 adult
welfare medication recipients.Main Outcome MeasuresMean daily number of essential and less essential drugs used per month,
ED visits, and serious adverse events (hospitalization, nursing home admission,
and mortality) before and after policy introduction.ResultsAfter cost-sharing was introduced, use of essential drugs decreased
by 9.12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.7%-9.6%) in elderly persons and
by 14.42% (95% CI, 13.3%-15.6%) in welfare recipients; use of less essential
drugs decreased by 15.14% (95% CI, 14.4%-15.9%) and 22.39% (95% CI, 20.9%-23.9%),
respectively. The rate (per 10 000 person-months) of serious adverse
events associated with reductions in use of essential drugs increased from
5.8 in the prepolicy control cohort to 12.6 in the postpolicy cohort in elderly
persons (a net increase of 6.8 [95% CI, 5.6-8.0]) and from 14.7 to 27.6 in
welfare recipients (a net increase of 12.9 [95% CI, 10.2-15.5]). Emergency
department visit rates related to reductions in the use of essential drugs
also increased by 14.2 (95% CI, 8.5-19.9) per 10 000 person-months in
elderly persons (prepolicy control cohort, 32.9; postpolicy cohort, 47.1)
and by 54.2 (95% CI, 33.5-74.8) among welfare recipients (prepolicy control
cohort, 69.6; postpolicy cohort, 123.8). These increases were primarily due
to an increase in the proportion of recipients who reduced their use of essential
drugs. Reductions in the use of less essential drugs were not associated with
an increase in risk of adverse events or ED visits.ConclusionsIn our study, increased cost-sharing for prescription drugs in elderly
persons and welfare recipients was followed by reductions in use of essential
drugs and a higher rate of serious adverse events and ED visits associated
with these reductions.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/1108322/JOC00341.pdf

Adverse Events Associated With Prescription Drug Cost-Sharing Among Poor and Elderly Persons

Background: Adverse drug-related events are common in the elderly, and inappropriate prescribing is a preventable risk factor. Our objective was to determine whether inappropriate prescribing could be reduced when primary care physicians had computer-based access to information on all prescriptions dispensed and automated alerts for potential prescribing problems. Methods: We randomly assigned 107 primary care physicians with at least 100 patients aged 66 years and older (total 12 560) to a group receiving computerized decision-making support (CDS) or a control group. Physicians in the CDS group had access to information on current and past prescriptions through a dedicated computer link to the provincial seniors9 drug-insurance program. When any of 159 clinically relevant prescribing problems were identified by the CDS software, the physician received an alert that identified the nature of the problem, possible consequences and alternative therapy. The rate of initiation and discontinuation of potentially inappropriate prescriptions was assessed over a 13-month period. Results: In the 2 months before the study, 31.8% of the patients in the CDS group and 33.3% of those in the control group had at least 1 potentially inappropriate prescription. During the study the number of new potentially inappropriate prescriptions per 1000 visits was significantly lower (18%) in the CDS group than in the control group (relative rate [RR] 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.69–0.98), but differences between the groups in the rate of discontinuation of potentially inappropriate prescriptions were significant only for therapeutic duplication by the study physician and another physician (RR 1.66, 95% CI 0.99–2.79) and drug interactions caused by prescriptions written by the study physician (RR 2.15, 95% CI 0.98–4.70). Interpretation: Computer-based access to complete drug profiles and alerts about potential prescribing problems reduces the rate of initiation of potentially inappropriate prescriptions but has a more selective effect on the discontinuation of such prescriptions.

/pdf/the-medical-office-of-the-21st-century-moxxi-effectiveness-54mkupnwuj.pdf

The medical office of the 21st century (MOXXI): effectiveness of computerized decision-making support in reducing inappropriate prescribing in primary care

OBJECTIVES: To determine (a) whether the risk of a potentially inappropriate drug combination (PIDC) increases with the number of physicians involved in the medical management of an elderly patient and (b) whether the risk of a PIDC is reduced if a patient has a single primary care physician or a single dispensing pharmacy, or both. DESIGN: Cross-sectional retrospective provincial database study. PARTICIPANTS: A regionally stratified random sample of 51,587 elderly medicare registrants in Quebec who (a) visited at least one physician in 1990, (b) were not living in a health care institution for the entire year and (c) had been dispensed at least one prescription for a cardiovascular drug, a psychotropic drug or a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). OUTCOME MEASURES: Information on all physician visits and drugs dispensed during 1990. Physician claims were used to identify the number of physicians involved in a patient9s management and whether the patient had one primary care physician. Prescription claims were used to identify the number of PIDCs, prescribing physicians and dispensing pharmacies. RESULTS: The prevalence of PIDCs ranged from 4.0% (among those in the NSAID group) to 20.3% (among those in the psychotropic drug group). Of the PIDCs identified, 17.6% to 25.8% resulted from contemporaneous prescribing by different physicians. The number of prescribing physicians was the most important risk factor for a PIDC in all drug groups (odds ratio [OR] 1.44 to 1.71). The presence of a single primary care physician lowered the risk for cardiovascular and psychotropic PIDCs (OR 0.70 and 0.79 respectively) but not for NSAID PIDCs (OR 0.94). The use of a single dispensing pharmacy lowered the risk of a PIDC in all drug groups (OR 0.68 to 0.79). CONCLUSION: The greater the number of physicians prescribing medications for an elderly patient, the greater is the risk that the patient will receive a PIDC. A single primary care physician and a single dispensing pharmacy may be "protective" factors in preventing PIDCs.

Do too many cooks spoil the broth? Multiple physician involvement in medical management of elderly patients and potentially inappropriate drug combinations.

Do medical education and practice characteristics predict inappropriate prescribing of sedative-hypnotics for the elderly?

Les differences observees dans l'etat de sante et l'utilisation des services medicaux, selon le sexe, se sont averees insuffisantes pour expliquer une plus grande consommation de psychotropes chez les femmes que chez les hommes dans les pays industrialises. Nous avons teste l'hypothese selon laquelle les habitudes de prescription des medecins expliquent une partie importante de cette observation. Nous demontrons, a l'aide des donnees de la Regie de l'assurance-maladie du Quebec pour les personnes âgees de 65 ans et plus, que le profil socio-demographique et le style de gestion des medecins prescripteurs sont associes de facon significative au pourcentage d'hommes et de femmes ayant obtenu une ordonnance de psychotrope dans leurs pratiques.

/pdf/caracteristiques-des-medecins-prescrivant-des-psychotropes-1hujrm7nfu.pdf

Réjean Laprise

Papers

Adverse Events Associated With Prescription Drug Cost-Sharing Among Poor and Elderly Persons

The medical office of the 21st century (MOXXI): effectiveness of computerized decision-making support in reducing inappropriate prescribing in primary care

Do too many cooks spoil the broth? Multiple physician involvement in medical management of elderly patients and potentially inappropriate drug combinations.

Do medical education and practice characteristics predict inappropriate prescribing of sedative-hypnotics for the elderly?

Caractéristiques des médecins prescrivant des psychotropes davantage aux femmes qu'aux hommes.