Computerized POE substantially decreased the rate of non-missed-dose medication
errors. A major reduction in errors was achieved with the initial version of the system, and
further reductions were found with addition of decision support features.
We conclude that computerized POE resulted in a
very large decrease in the frequency of non-missed-dose medication errors, the errors that are most likely
to harm patients. Systems such as these have the po-tential to both fix and cause problems, and require
evaluation. The reductions occurred because order en-try both structured orders and facilitated the checking
of them. Further reductions should be possible with
additional decision support and refinement of the sys-tem. Such systems should be used more widely.