[Inability of hospital computerised physician order entry systems to secure the use of concentrated potassium intravenous solutions].

Objectives: To determine whether hospital computerised physician order entry (CPOE) systems contribute to securing intravenous potassium chloride (KCl) prescriptions with reference to the recommendations issued by French healthcare agencies.

Methods: We sent a questionnaire to the members of the Association pour le Digital et l'Information en Pharmacie.

Results: More than three quarters of the 84 responses received involving 23 CPOE systems indicate that it is possible to: prescribe an ampoule of concentrated potassium chloride 10% 10mL intravenously without any diluents (80%); prescribe 4g of KCl in a bag of 500mL of NaCl 0,9% (98%); prescribe a solution that contains 6 grams of KCl per liter (94%); prescribe the administration of an injectable ampoule orally by means of a free text comment (83%).