Changing patient care orders from paper to computerized provider order entry-based process

The purpose of this study was to describe the extent of change in patient care orders primarily for six diagnoses, procedures, or conditions in a not-for-profit Midwestern rural referral hospital. A descriptive method was used to analyze changes in the order sets over time for chest pain with acute myocardial infarction, degenerative osteoarthritis with hip joint replacement and degenerative osteoarthritis with knee joint replacement procedures, coronary artery bypass graft procedures, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia. Ten items about service-specific order sets were abstracted during pre- and post-EHR implementation and a year later. We then examined use 5 years later. The findings illustrate how the order sets evolved with multiple nested order sets to facilitate computerized provider order entry with a rate greater than 70% by physicians. The total number of available patient care orders within the order sets increased primarily because of linked nested order sets related to medications and diagnostic tests. Five years later, 50% of the orders were medication orders. In conclusion, this was important to deploy the order sets within smaller critical-access hospital facilities to train providers in adopting order sets internally.