Prevention of prescription errors by computerized, on-line surveillance of drug order entry.

Aims: The present study was undertaken to quantify the impact of computerized drug order entry system (CDOE) connected to the patients' database, on the incidence and type of prescription errors (PEs) in the medical service, and to delineate the causes for remaining errors.

Methods: Drug orders were reviewed daily by a physician-reviewer, in a department of internal medicine that used for more than 3 years a CDOE (CDOEdept), and in a similar department in which drug orders were handwritten (HWdept). PEs were divided into those not related to the individual patient (type 1 PEs), and PEs resulting from drug-laboratory, drug-disease, and drug-allergy interactions (type 2 PEs).