Wieviel CPOE muss es sein? Ein Plädoyer für Prozessintegration

CPOE is still far from being widely used in Swiss hospitals. It is however perceived as an important issue to be tackled in the near future. CPOE is not only a means of improving quality and safety. While these are significant goals, it must be emphasised that CPOE is also a major tool in improving efficiency, from the economic viewpoint as well as at the process level. If CPOE is to support care processes it must include added-value for providers, including decision support. Knowledge being at the core of decision support, it requires exhaustive validated databases. Finally, CPOE cannot be viewed as restricted merely to drug prescription. If the hospital is to derive maximum benefit from it, CPOE must be fully integrated into all aspects of management, from logistics to billing, and must cover all activities, including care. The great opportunity and challenge offered by CPOE is in improving all care processes in the hospital.