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Appl Clin Inform 2019; 10(05): 927-934
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-3400447
Research Article
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

The Effect of Eliminating Intermediate Severity Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts on Overall Medication Alert Burden and Acceptance Rate

Amy M. Knight
1   Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
,
Joyce Maygers
2   Department of Care Management, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
,
Kimberly A. Foltz
3   Division of Clinical Informatics, Department of Information Services, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
,
Isha S. John
4   American Pharmacists Association, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
,
Hsin Chieh Yeh
5   Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
6   Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
,
Daniel J. Brotman
6   Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding This publication was made possible by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) which is funded in part by Grant Number UL1 TR 001079 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the Johns Hopkins ICTR, NCATS or NIH.
Further Information

Publication History

12 March 2019

07 October 2019

Publication Date:
04 December 2019 (online)

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Abstract

Objective This study aimed to determine the effects of reducing the number of drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts in an order entry system.

Methods Retrospective pre–post analysis at an urban medical center of the rates of medication alerts and alert acceptance during a 5-month period before and 5-month period after the threshold for firing DDI alerts was changed from “intermediate” to “severe.” To ensure that we could determine varying response to each alert type, we took an in-depth look at orders generating single alerts.

Results Before the intervention, 241,915 medication orders were placed, of which 25.6% generated one or more medication alerts; 5.3% of the alerts were accepted. During the postintervention period, 245,757 medication orders were placed of which 16.0% generated one or more medication alerts, a 37.5% relative decrease in alert rate (95% confidence interval [CI]: −38.4 to −36.8%), but only a 9.6% absolute decrease (95% CI: −9.4 to −9.9%). 7.4% of orders generating alerts were accepted postintervention, a 39.6% relative increase in acceptance rate (95% CI: 33.2–47.2%), but only a 2.1% absolute increase (95% CI: 1.8–2.4%). When only orders generating a single medication alert were considered, there was a 69.1% relative decrease in the number of orders generating DDI alerts, and an 85.7% relative increase in the acceptance rate (95% CI: 58.6–126.2%), though only a 1.8% absolute increase (95% CI: 1.3–2.3%).

Conclusion Eliminating intermediate severity DDI alerts resulted in a statistically significant decrease in alert burden and increase in the rate of medication alert acceptance, but alert acceptance remained low overall.

Keywords

clinical decision support - medication alerts - high-alert medications - computerized physician order entry - alert fatigue

Authors' Contributions

All listed authors contributed substantially to the study conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and final approval of the version to be published. No one who fulfills these criteria has been excluded from authorship.


Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

The study was performed in compliance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Patients, and was reviewed by Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board.


 

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