GPs’ views on the importance of specified patient safety features on their computer system
| How important do you think it is for a GP computer system to have …? | % agreement | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very important | Important | Of minimal importance | Unimportant | |
| In all tables the denominator for each question varies as not all respondents answered every question. | ||||
| Drug interaction alerts (n = 376) | 80.6 | 18.1 | 1.3 | 0 |
| Contraindication alerts, e.g. alerting you to a past medical history of peptic ulcer when trying to prescribe an NSAID to a patient (n = 381) | 70.6 | 28.3 | 1.0 | 0 |
| Allergy alerts, e.g. alerting you that a patient is allergic to a particular drug if you were to try to prescribe it (n = 379) | 90.0 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alerts regarding frequency of dose, e.g. alerting you that methotrexate is normally prescribed weekly (n = 381) | 53.5 | 42.5 | 3.9 | 0 |
| Alerts regarding drugs with similar names, e.g. alerting you to a potential hazard if you were to select penicillamine rather than penicillin (n = 379) | 44.6 | 44.3 | 10.8 | 0.3 |
| Features that make it extremely difficult to override an alert for a potentially fatal prescribing error (n = 378) | 61.4 | 31.5 | 6.6 | 0.5 |
| Alerts to warn you that a patient has gone beyond their review date when it comes to trying to issue a repeat prescription (n = 379) | 11.1 | 68.9 | 18.2 | 1.8 |
| Alerts to warn you that a patient may be underusing their medication when it comes to trying to issue a repeat prescription (n = 354) | 4.5 | 64.1 | 29.4 | 2.0 |
| Alerts to warn you that a patient may be overusing their medication when it comes to trying to issue a repeat prescription (n = 355) | 19.4 | 71.0 | 9.0 | 0.6 |
| Prompts that require you to record a reason if you have overridden an alert (n = 353) | 13.3 | 49.9 | 28.9 | 7.9 |
| Computerised audit trails that allow a practice to see if alerts have been overridden (n = 347) | 17.9 | 51.3 | 25.9 | 4.9 |
| Systems for recalling patients who need blood test monitoring,e.g. urea and electrolyte (U&E) levels for patients on diuretics (n = 354) | 27.1 | 64.7 | 8.2 | 0 |
| Systems for recording intended referrals so that patients can be identified if a referral hasn’t been made within a certain period of time (n = 354) | 26.6 | 54.5 | 17.5 | 1.4 |
| Computer searches that allow you to run reports on patients who may have received potentially hazardous drug combinations (n = 351) | 24.2 | 60.4 | 13.1 | 2.3 |
| Computer searches that allow you to run reports on patients who may be at risk from their medications, e.g. patients with asthma who might be receiving β-blockers (n = 353) | 26.9 | 58.4 | 13.0 | 1.7 |
| In laboratory linked practices, having alerts to inform GPs of seriously abnormal results (n = 353) | 56.1 | 41.9 | 2.0 | 0 |