Clinical decision support solutions can prevent 95% of medication errors in the operating room

What you should know:

A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital provides promising news for surgical patients. Researchers have found that specialized computer software can significantly reduce medication errors in the operating room, preventing harm to patients.

The study, published in the journal Anesthesia and analgesiapublished by Wolters Kluwer, found that this software, known as clinical decision support (CDS), could have prevented 95% of medication errors documented at the hospital over a two-year period.

The deadly threat of medication errors in anesthesia

The study, led by Dr. Nanji and nurse anesthetist Lynda Amici, analyzed safety reports involving medication errors documented by anesthesia providers at MGH between 2020 and 2022. Two independent reviewers ranked the errors and assessed whether they could have been avoided by clinical decision support software. .

Analysis of 127 safety reports revealed 80 medication errors. Notably, 76 of these errors (95%) were deemed avoidable through the use of such software. Errors involving the wrong medication or dosage were particularly likely to be avoided using this technology.

“Medication errors made in the operating room have a high potential for serious harm to patients,” says Dr. Karen Nanji, lead author of the study and a physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital. These errors may involve administering the wrong medication, the wrong dose, or administering a medication to a patient with a known allergy.

How CDS works

Clinical decision support software acts as a real-time safety net for clinicians. It uses complex algorithms to analyze patient data and provide evidence-based recommendations at the point of care. This may include suggesting the appropriate medication, dosage, and potential interactions with other medications the patient is taking.

Beginnings, great potential

“Although CDS has the potential to significantly improve both efficiency and safety in the operating room,” says lead author Lynda Amici, nurse anesthetist, “its use is still in its infancy.” .

The researchers emphasize the need for additional studies to definitively confirm the effectiveness of CDS on a larger scale. However, the current results constitute a strong indicator of its potential to revolutionize surgical safety.

Paving the way for safer surgeries

Massachusetts General Hospital is already taking steps to implement this technology. They developed their own CDS platform called GuidedOR, which is currently used at their hospital and adopted by other facilities in the Mass General Brigham Health System.