Application: Decision Support Systems

To prepare for this Application Assignment, review this week’s readings and websites. Then pick ONE scenario below to address for this week’s Application.

Construct a convincing argument in 400-500 words that explains the benefits and the challenges of using a CDS in the clinical situation you choose. Use your readings to support your rationale.

The following three scenarios depict examples of the use of CDS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems, 2012, Retrieved fromhttp://www.himss.org/files/HIMSSorg/content/files/CDS101WebSite.pdf:

Scenario A
You are a nurse on a busy surgery unit in an acute care hospital. Every time you administer a medication, you are required to scan the bar codes of your patient’s wristband and the medication. Occasionally, this process prompts an alert that the medication you are about to administer is contra-indicated for your patient.

Scenario B
You are a primary care physician in a large group practice that uses an electronic health record (EHR). At the beginning of each visit, you view a dashboard of preventive care measures – like flu vaccine, colon cancer screening, cholesterol tests – that are due for your patient, based on age, medical history (problem list), and medication list stored in the EHR.

Scenario C
You are a care manager in an emergency department. Thirty patients are in the unit right now, and new lab results, imaging studies, and orders are constantly being posted on all of them. You have a visual “air traffic” tracking display which shows which patients have not been seen yet, which have new orders to process, which have abnormal lab results, which ones have been in the unit more than four hours, which have inpatient beds ready, and more. Your status display filters and reformats all the information to help you know where to direct your attention next.

Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week‘s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure your in-text citations and reference list are correct.

Readings

• Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). (2012). e-Health. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov/communication/ehealth/Default.asp
• Walker, J., & Carayon, P. (2009). From tasks to processes: the case for changing health information technology to improve health care. Health Affairs, 28(2), 467-477. Retrieved from: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/2/467.full.pdf+html-
• Park, T., & Basch, P. (2009). A historic opportunity: Wedding health information technology to care delivery innovation and provider payment reform. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/report/2009/05/18/6025/a-historic-opportunity/
• Chaudhry, B., Jerome, W., Shinyi, W., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., & … Shekelle, P. G. (2006). Systematic Review: Impact of Health Information Technology on Quality, Efficiency, and Costs of Medical Care. Annals Of Internal Medicine, 144(10), E12-W18, 144:742. Retrieved from:http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=723406
• Power, D. (n.d.). Types of decision support systems (DSS). Retrieved from http://www.gdrc.org/decision/dss-types.html
• Berner, E. S. (2009). Clinical Support Systems: State of the Art. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ Publication No. 09-0069-EF). Retrieved fromhttp://www.himss.org/files/HIMSSorg/content/files/BestPracticesClinicalDecisionSupport.pdf
• Weaver, C. (2010, April 7). Savings from computerizing medical records are hard to measure. Kaiser Health News. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/April/07/veterans-admin-electronic-health-record.aspx

Optional Resources

Readings

• Berry, K. (2008, February). A Rx to improve medication safety. Behavioral Healthcare, 28(2), 36–8.

Websites