A descriptive analysis of a nursing home clinical information system with decision support.

Clinical information systems are absent in most nursing homes. Therefore, the vast numbers of elderly people who reside in the facilities are not reaping the benefits that these systems are thought to have, including better management of chronic conditions, greater efficiencies, and improved access to information. It is important for early adopters of nursing home information systems to share experiences to foster implementation of other systems and improve design and evaluation of these systems. The purpose of this study is to describe the activity of clinical decision support alerts and associated triggers during an analysis of an information system implemented in three nursing homes. The proportion of triggers used for each active alert in each alert category is described across resident diagnoses within the nursing home decision support system during six months of data collection.