MTC and NEHI Release Document
on e-Health Lessons Learned

MTC and the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) have released a new report detailing the lessons learned in Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system implementation.

This document identifies five community hospitals around the country that have successfully implemented CPOE, and examines their experience in six areas concerning implementation. The top three areas are:

• Physician incentives
• Process redesign - focus areas, approaches/tools
• Metrics - baseline and post-implementation

The profiles of successful models in this report are intended to help guide implementation teams in Massachusetts hospitals as they move forward. Included with the report is an annotated bibliography that provides excellent information and references about CPOE implementation. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share our lessons learned with all of our key stakeholders in Massachusetts healthcare. Copies of this report were mailed to all Massachusetts hospital CEOs.

Benefits, Performance, and Payment Model Program Working Committee Meets

A committee was formed representing a cross section of key stakeholders in Massachusetts healthcare. They bring their interest, perspective and expertise to this phase of the project that is focusing on the financial and quality improvement related to inpatient CPOE. Committee members are:

• Paula Griswold, Executive Director Coalition For The Prevention Of Medical Errors
• Andy Hilbert, CFO Tufts Health Plan
• Rick Lord, CEO A.I.M
• Allen Maltz, CFO BCBSMA
• Dolores Mitchell, Executive Director Group Insurance Commission
• Barbra Rabson, Executive Director Massachusetts Health Quality Partners
• Kevin Smith, CFO Winchester Hospital
• Don Thieme, Executive Director Massachusetts Council Community Hospitals

In last months newsletter a summary of the CPOE Baseline study was provided. This month we share with you proposed outcomes.

• Ability to quantify potential improvement in expensive drug utilization, adverse drug events, renal dosing, IV to Oral administration and redundant laboratory testing.
• Design a CPOE Clinical Decision Support System for each hospital
• Identify metrics in each area that can be used to track hospital operations over time to assure that the system is being operated effectively
• Financial analysis to show benefit for hospital and payers
• Report and publication of results on all six hospitals
• Payers adopt robust payment incentives

As the study progresses we will keep our stakeholders updated.

CPOE Case Study in Production

NEHI and MTC will soon release a Case Study on Computerized Physician Order Entry, A Blueprint for a Beginning, supported by the Commonwealth Fund.

This case study is a review of the first year of work of the Massachusetts Hospital CPOE Initiative and is designed to provide the reader with a background of how and why the Initiative was formed and what critical initial steps were taken to launch this successful collaboration. This work is a valuable tool for hospitals currently considering CPOE systems.

Visit our web site

Our goal is to become an important resource for hospitals working towards adopting CPOE. Our site contains recently published reports, abstracts, other newsworthy events, and links to other organizations involved with CPOE. Our project updates are archived as well. It is constantly being populated with new items. Such as a link to: “Return on Investment for a Computerized Physician Order Entry System”, published in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, a ten year study documenting the Brigham and Women’s CPOE system. The abstract notes the hospital's success in improving quality and reducing costs in key areas such as renal dosing, adverse drug events, nurse time utilization, expensive drug guidance, redundant lab tests, intravenous to oral guidance.

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