REPLY
Polypharmacy in Skilled-Nursing Facilities
Judith K. Jones
15 April 1993 | Volume 118 Issue 8 | Pages 649-651
IN RESPONSE:
Dr. Terplan is rightly concerned that attention to the patient's welfare might be lost as computer technology enters the health care setting. Computerized methods for drug utilization review generate information applicable to individual patient care decisions. The computer print-out, which temporally arrays drug and clinical data, provides an overview of patient status not reproduced in patient charts.
Further, direct entry of drug orders into a computer provides safeguards to prevent problems such as overuse of drugs. While overuse was not the point of the editorial, it represents a major focus of geriatricians, most drug utilization review organizations, and, more recently, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations [1, 2].
In sum, properly managed automation of the clinical setting can provide physicians with a more comprehensive knowledge at the patient's bedside and the ability to track many outcomes [3]. To assure that patient care remains the focus, physicians in the United States must become more computer and database literate.
1. Jones JK. Drugs in the elderly. In: Reichel W; ed. Clinical Aspects of Aging-3. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1989:41-60.
2. Atkinson AJ, Nadzam DM, Schaff RL. An indicator-based program for improving medication use in acute care hospitals. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1991; 50:125-8.
3. Shortliffe EH, Detmer DE. Patient records and computers. Ann Intern Med. 1991; 115:979-81.
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