The effect of immediate access to a computerized medical record on physician test ordering: a controlled clinical trial in the emergency room.
G A Wilson,
C J McDonald and
G P McCabe, Jr
We performed a randomized clinical trial of the effect of immediatelyprinted summaries of a computerized medical record on physiciantest ordering rates in an Emergency Room setting. The computerizedmedical record contained medication history, the results ofmost diagnostic studies, an outpatient problem list, and inpatientand emergency room diagnoses. Physicians were presented witha printed summary of the patient's computerized record for studybut not for control encounters. All other patient informationwas equally available to both kinds of encounters. All resultswere provided for one period of the study, designated T1. Dueto a program error, summaries were printed without recent dataduring a period of the study, designated T2. Two-thirds of thevisits were cared for by internists, one-third by surgeons.During T1, internists ordered an average of 3.2 tests, costing$34.91 for control visits, and 2.7 tests, costing $29.94 forstudy control visits (p less than .026). Surgeons also orderedfewer tests during study visits as compared to controls (1.32vs 1.54) but the differences were not statistically significant.There was no significant effect on either medical or surgicaltest ordering during time period T2.
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