Appropriateness of prostate-specific antigen testing.

We established criteria for appropriate use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) assay and used them to evaluate PSA test utilization at 1 tertiary care institution. During a 6-month period, 2,330 PSA results were reported for outpatients and 95 for inpatients. We reviewed medical records for a random sample of 338 outpatient results (14.

Improving response to critical laboratory results with automation: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of an automatic alerting system on the time until treatment is ordered for patients with critical laboratory results.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled trial.

Intervention: A computer system to detect critical conditions and automatically notify the responsible physician via the hospital's paging system.

The impact of computerized physician order entry on medication error prevention.

Background: Medication errors are common, and while most such errors have little potential for harm they cause substantial extra work in hospitals. A small proportion do have the potential to cause injury, and some cause preventable adverse drug events.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of computerized physician order entry (POE) with decision support in reducing the number of medication errors.

Capitation and its effects on physician satisfaction.

Objective: Capitation is an increasingly common method of paying physicians, but few data exist on its impact on physician satisfaction. This study examines the perceived effects of capitation on physician satisfaction at a large, academic medical center.

Study Design: Survey of physicians at a single, tertiary care hospital.

A randomized trial of a computer-based intervention to reduce utilization of redundant laboratory tests.

Purpose: To determine the impact of giving physicians computerized reminders about apparently redundant clinical laboratory tests.

Subjects And Methods: We performed a prospective randomized controlled trial that included all inpatients at a large teaching hospital during a 15-week period. The intervention consisted of computerized reminders at the time a test was ordered that appeared to be redundant.