PATIENT SAFETY 2

Patient Safety

CDSS is considered to be the cornerstone when it comes to patient safety. However, if
not used properly, this system could jeopardize the safety of patients. For instance, changing
clinical terminologies on CDSS, and failing to communicate the changes to all concerned CDSS
teams could lead to errors which would, in turn, jeopardize the safety of a patient. Although
CDSS has tools that support the management of terminology, however, errors within the system
could affect the tools’ capability to detect and mitigate the effect of changes made on
terminology. A change in terms and codes used could have consequent effects on the order sets,
documentation tools, and CDSS rules (Murphy, 2014). Such a malfunction in the production
systems may not be easily detected, and the impact of changing terminologies could affect the
accuracy of the results given by the system.
CDSS supports a variety of clinical functions such as monitoring a patient and warning of
changes in their condition. In the event that a physician is inexperienced, or has a patient whose
case is rare or complex, CDSS helps in formulating the probable diagnosis. In the event, that
terminology is changed, and clear communication is not made, then patient safety could be
compromised since the likelihood that the diagnosis made will be incorrect will be very high. In
such an instance, even treatment options that CDSS will formulate will be inaccurate or
inconsistent with the identified condition (Murphy, 2014).
Overall, changing terminologies does not in itself jeopardize patient safety. However, the
lack of clear communication with concerned parties when such changes are made is the major
issue. Also, failure to countercheck if the terminology management tools are functioning well

PATIENT SAFETY 3
prior to making the changes could affect patent safety negatively. Patient safety is compromised
when necessary measures are not taken when making changes.
References

Murphy, E. V. (2014). Clinical decision support: effectiveness in improving quality processes
and clinical outcomes and factors that may influence success. The Yale journal of biology
and medicine, 87(2), 187.