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Pharmacists shouldn't be "clicking through" alerts. They should have a separate, joystick style device with an actual trigger (bright red). That trigger, and th
by seagreen 12y ago
Pharmacists shouldn't be "clicking through" alerts. They should have a separate, joystick style device with an actual trigger (bright red). That trigger, and that trigger alone, can dismiss an alert.
Seriously, what would that cost, like $20? (Obviously there are a lot more things wrong with this system than just using a mouse for too much, but this would help). We should be willing to invest more in our machines: http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861 http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861
- chucksmash 12y agoAnd if they are beset with hundreds of mostly innocuous alerts a day, the low signal/noise ratio of the alerts and their sheer quantity will train the pharmacists to press that button just a bit more blithely each time. That leads one the believe the correct course of action is to reduce the number of alerts but then that was at least part of the cause of the incident related in the article. My wife is a Pharm.D. at a hospital (that coincidentally is currently installing Epic). I know she worries (obsesses even) over the possibility of making an error that hurts or kills someone. I'd like to think other people doing that work feel the same way. Even if she can get three or four nines worth of confidence in every decision she makes however, that leads to some unfortunate probabilities when multiplied out by a career's worth of decisions. We can improve the technology to reduce the chances of significantly negative outcomes but they will always be non-zero. I don't envy her or the programmers working on systems like Epic. It's messy work with serious consequences.
- seagreen 12y agoReducing alerts is way more important than my idea, I totally agree with that.