About the Initiative

The goal of the Massachusetts Hospital CPOE Initiative is to improve patient safety and quality of care, and to lower costs in the state’s healthcare system. Its objective is to achieve full implementation of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems in all acute care hospitals in the state within four years. All systems will meet minimum standards with regard to applications, features, clinical decision support, and interoperability with the electronic medical records systems in all other provider settings in the state.

Started in 2005, the Massachusetts Hospital CPOE Initiative is a collaborative effort supported by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA), and the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals (MCCH).

The first phase of the initiative was completed earlier this year, resulting in release of the:

• Readiness Self Assessment
• CPOE Readiness Roadmap Guide
• Development of Clinical and Application CPOE Standards

Thirteen hospitals were found to be “most ready” based on the initial assessment and two-day site visits that were conducted. The hospitals from the pilot group will work closely with the CPOE Initiative to develop the benefits, performance, funding, and payment phases of the project.

All other hospitals will continue advancing toward CPOE implementation working on key project elements identified in the customized roadmap supplied by the CPOE Initiative.

The second phase of the Initiative aims:

• To identify, as precisely as possible, the benefits, in terms of both quality and cost of hospital-based CPOE
• To establish performance metrics as a basis of determining the effective operation of CPOE systems
• To project financial and other benefits on a hospital-specific basis
• To allocate the financial benefits to hospitals and payers on a hospital- specific basis
• To encourage a payment model that would provide incentives for hospitals to implement CPOE systems and to operate them in an effective manner