WASHINGTON – The Leapfrog Group's new report on CPOE points to the harm that could occur to patients when healthcare IT is employed without proper testing and monitoring.

The healthcare watchdog group will release a new report on Wednesday that outlines the results of 214 hospitals that used Leapfrog's CPOE Evaluation Tool between June 2008 and January 2010. "The report has immediate implications for policy makers, hospitals, technology vendors, and, most importantly, patients," according to Leapfrog.

Beginning in 2008, Leapfrog asked hospitals to not only report on their rate of CPOE adoption, but to also test the efficacy of their CPOE systems.

Testing is accomplished through Leapfrog's CPOE Evaluation Tool. The simulation tool provides each hospital with 10 patient scenarios and 50 medication orders. Hospitals are asked to run the patients and corresponding orders through their systems and report results to Leapfrog.

The CPOE Evaluation Tool tests a CPOE system's ability to detect common medication errors and errors that could lead to fatalities.
 
Leapfrog has scheduled a telephone news conference on Wednesday, June 30, to release the findings of the report.

Slated to participate are:

• Leah Binder, CEO, The Leapfrog Group
• Barbara Rudolph, senior science director, The Leapfrog Group
• David Knowlton, president and CEO of New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and chairman, Leapfrog Board of Director
• Keith Reissaus, vice president of Community and Workplace Initiatives, Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana and vice chairman, Leapfrog Board of Directors

The call is set for 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

Healthcare IT News will post the news immediately following the conference.