| Daviess Community Hospital is now among the cutting-edge hospitals in the country with an electronic medical records system complete with Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). CPOE refers to the actual placement of orders by physicians and practitioners directly into the electronic medical record. The system increases patient safety by removing handwritten orders. It also improves efficiencies in providing care and treatment by reducing the time for patients to receive medications and tests.
For Dr. Nick Dahl, an Emergency Room physician at DCH, the change to CPOE provides many advantages in the delivery of high quality patient care. “As a physician, CPOE provides a tremendous advantage to my patients because it provides a safer and more efficient care environment,” says Dr. Dahl. “Safeguards are built into the system alerting me to potential drug interactions and drug allergies. In addition, the speed in which orders for my patients are transmitted directly to the receiving department’s computer allows me to deliver the very best care quickly.”
The hospital’s addition of CPOE took 21 weeks to implement and is the second phase of a system-wide EMR implementation that began at DCH in 2010. When fully integrated, any patient that visits Daviess Community Hospital will have his or her electronic medical record accessible in both the clinic and hospital settings. | 
Dr. Nick Dahl (seated) Emergency Room Physician at DCH checks one of the features of the hospital’s new order entry system which provides efficiencies and safeguards for the transmission of patient orders. Looking on are DCH Information Systems team members, Clint Goodwin (left) and Debbie Hill, RN (right).
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