The use of interactive computerized order sets to improve outcomes.

An interdisciplinary team, led by a medication safety pharmacist and a nurse clinical and quality analyst, has created criteria-based, interactive order sets in a computerized physician order entry system to facilitate the ordering of evidence-based medications. These order sets are developed by consensus among physicians, nurses, and pharmacists utilizing the literature of the medical specialty, and then presented to the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee for approval. Once approved, the orders are built in the computer system and checked for quality by a pharmacist and 2 nurses before activation. The support of the vice president of Medical Affairs and the physician chief information officer has paved the way for physician acceptance of the orders.