How do you balance the benefits and risks of CDS for patient safety and quality of care?

1 Understand your goals and needs

Before implementing or using CDS, you should have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how CDS can help you. What are the clinical problems or gaps that you want to address? What are the evidence-based practices or standards that you want to follow? What are the workflows and preferences of your clinicians and patients? How will you measure and evaluate the impact of CDS on your outcomes and processes? By answering these questions, you can define your goals and needs, and select or design CDS that aligns with them.

3 Manage and monitor alerts

One of the most common forms of CDS is alerts, which notify clinicians of potential errors, risks, or opportunities for improvement. Alerts can be very useful, but they can also be very annoying, especially if they are too frequent, irrelevant, or intrusive. Alert fatigue is a serious problem that can reduce the effectiveness and acceptance of CDS, and increase the risk of errors or adverse events. To prevent or reduce alert fatigue, you should manage and monitor your alerts carefully. You should prioritize and filter your alerts, to make sure that they are relevant, actionable, and timely. You should also track and analyze your alert performance, to identify and address any issues or gaps.

4 Engage and educate users

CDS is not a magic bullet that can solve all your clinical problems. It is a tool that requires human input, judgment, and feedback. To ensure that CDS is used appropriately and effectively, you should engage and educate your users. You should involve your clinicians and patients in the development, implementation, and evaluation of CDS, to ensure that it meets their needs and expectations. You should also provide training, support, and feedback to your users, to help them understand the purpose, benefits, and limitations of CDS, and to encourage them to use it correctly and responsibly.

5 Consider ethical and legal implications

CDS can have significant ethical and legal implications for your practice and your patients. CDS can affect the quality, safety, and outcomes of care, as well as the autonomy, privacy, and rights of patients and clinicians. You should consider the ethical and legal aspects of CDS, such as informed consent, data protection, liability, accountability, transparency, and fairness. You should also follow the relevant laws, regulations, standards, and codes of conduct that apply to your practice and your CDS. You should also consult with your legal and ethical advisors, if you have any doubts or concerns.

6 Learn and improve continuously

CDS is not a static or fixed technology. It is a dynamic and evolving technology that can change and improve over time. You should learn and improve continuously from your CDS experience, by collecting and analyzing data, feedback, and evidence. You should measure and monitor the impact of CDS on your patient safety and quality of care, as well as on your efficiency, satisfaction, and costs. You should also identify and implement opportunities for improvement, such as enhancing your CDS features, functions, or usability, or addressing any problems or barriers that you encounter.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?