Dataset Information

Screening for medication errors using an outlier detection system.

ABSTRACT: Objective:The study objective was to evaluate the accuracy, validity, and clinical usefulness of medication error alerts generated by an alerting system using outlier detection screening. Materials and Methods:Five years of clinical data were extracted from an electronic health record system for 747?985 patients who had at least one visit during 2012-2013 at practices affiliated with 2 academic medical centers. Data were screened using the system to detect outliers suggestive of potential medication errors. A sample of 300 charts was selected for review from the 15?693 alerts generated. A coding system was developed and codes assigned based on chart review to reflect the accuracy, validity, and clinical value of the alerts. Results:Three-quarters of the chart-reviewed alerts generated by the screening system were found to be valid in which potential medication errors were identified. Of these valid alerts, the majority (75.0%) were found to be clinically useful in flagging potential medication errors or issues. Discussion:A clinical decision support (CDS) system that used a probabilistic, machine-learning approach based on statistically derived outliers to detect medication errors generated potentially useful alerts with a modest rate of false positives. The performance of such a surveillance and alerting system is critically dependent on the quality and completeness of the underlying data. Conclusion:The screening system was able to generate alerts that might otherwise be missed with existing CDS systems and did so with a reasonably high degree of alert usefulness when subjected to review of patients' clinical contexts and details.

SUBMITTER: Schiff GD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7651890 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Screening for medication errors using an outlier detection system.

Schiff Gordon D GD Volk Lynn A LA Volodarskaya Mayya M Williams Deborah H DH Walsh Lake L Myers Sara G SG Bates David W DW Rozenblum Ronen R

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 20170301 2

<h4>Objective</h4>The study objective was to evaluate the accuracy, validity, and clinical usefulness of medication error alerts generated by an alerting system using outlier detection screening.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>Five years of clinical data were extracted from an electronic health record system for 747 985 patients who had at least one visit during 2012-2013 at practices affiliated with 2 academic medical centers. Data were screened using the system to detect outliers suggestive of p ...[more]

PMID: 28104826

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Dataset Information

Screening for medication errors using an outlier detection system.

Publications

Screening for medication errors using an outlier detection system.

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