AI Embedded in the EHR Helps Prevent Adverse Medication Interactions
By Susan Morse
An artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medication history can help increase patient safety, especially in the emergency department (ED). Patients may not remember all the medications they take, nor the doses, and even when they do, their medication lists may not be up-to-date. Often in the ED, gaps or inconsistencies in a patient's medication information requires calling the pharmacy, prescribing physician, or patient's caregiver or family.
Rebecca Sulfridge, a clinical pharmacist and emergency specialist at Covenant HealthCare in Michigan, explains that AI embedded in the health system's electronic health record (EHR) has led to improvements and cost savings. After DrFirst, a software vendor, embedded software in the Epic EHR system to upload medication claims data, clinicians could then see which drugs had been and which prescriptions were being filled. When COVID-19 hit, the system was extremely helpful, Sulfridge said, as technicians were not allowed in patients' rooms due to a shortage of personal protection equipment, and nurses were extremely busy. "Without that, I think we would not have been able to do medication histories," Sulfridge said. Going forward, she sees software on allergy information and price transparency regarding what drugs are covered for patients. "It's been really, really interesting to see how changes to workflow came out of COVID, and see the changes, the increase in productivity and accuracy and with AI," she noted.
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