How Brigham and Women’s Hospital Is Relieving EHR Alert Fatigue

Picture life on the internet before pop-up blockers. An individual would log onto the internet, and unrelated or obnoxious pop-ups would fill the screen. EHR alerts are just like those web browser pop-ups, except these alerts are not only frustrating, but an excessive amount could also carry significant consequences.

The health IT professionals compared Brigham’s current EHR solution alerts from inpatient and outpatient settings to the vendor’s alerts from a de-identified data set from the two settings.

“The solution is anticipating what the clinician's next move might want to be,” Bates explained. “It doesn't tell the clinician which antidepressant to prescribe, but it does tell the user of the available ones, which ones are not going to cause a problem given the medications that the patient's already on.”