Methodology for evaluating physician order entry (POE) implementations.

The body of physician order entry (POE) implementations literature uses statistical evaluation methods to demonstrate changes in specified variables after POE implementation. To understand and manage the holistic impact of POE on the health care institution, a methodology that utilizes feedback to guide the POE implementation towards the satisfaction of stakeholder objectives is presented. Stakeholders jointly define quantitative and qualitative metrics for their objectives, establish target value vectors for the metrics that represent acceptable implementation outcomes and specify evaluation milestones. These are used to compare pre- and post-POE implementation clinical performance, enabling a socio-technical feedback-improvement cycle. A case study is provided to illustrate how the methodology is being used at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Science Centre in Toronto, Canada.