EDIS Safety Depends on System Design and Deployment

An article in the October 2013 issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine explores patient safety concerns related to the use of emergency department information systems (EDISs) and recommends steps hospitals and EDIS vendors can take to address them.

The authors state that although EDIS-related errors are often attributed to user experience level and training, “a growing body of evidence suggests that many errors may be the result of poor design rather than user errors.” For example, an EDIS may force clinicians to use...