Computerized reminders reduce the use of medications during shortages

• HIT Description: clinical reminder as part of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Evaluate the impact of a clinical reminder during the prescribing process regarding the national shortage of methylprednisolone on use of alternative medications and orders for methylprednisolone
  
• Years of study: 2003
  
• Study Design: pre-post
  
• Outcomes: impact on efficiency, utilization and costs
  

• Settings: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a 324-bed tertiary care pediatric hospita
• Intervention: compared the numbers and rates of prescriptions for methylprednisolone prior to and after the introduction of the alert
• Evaluation Method: electronic prescribing data
• Description: support tool within an Integrating Clinical Information System (ICIS) that alerted providers trying to order methylprednisolone of a critical shortage of the medication and allowed providers to select one of two recommended therapeutically equivalent medications
• Healthcare Utilization: There was a statistically significant decrease in methylprednisolone orders equivalent to a 55% relative reduction. There were significant increases in orders for alternative medications (dexamethasone and hydrocortisone)
• Changes in healthcare costs: The decreased use of methylprednisolone resulted in an annualized savings of more than $36,000