Decision Support Systems

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) help to inform decisions by providing information at the point of care. CDSSs can be tremendously helpful tools in many different situations and circumstances, and often their use helps to improve patient outcomes. In addition, CDSSs can help to improve efficiency, effectiveness of care, quality, and safety.

In this Assignment, you will analyze a scenario and describe the benefits and challenges of using a CDSS within the scenario.

Scenario 

You are a physician in a busy clinic. You are seeing greater than 40 patients per day. Your clinic is involved in submitting quality measures to the state called "Community Measures". The electronic medical record alerts you to health screenings needed for this patient. You remind this patient of the needed screenings and with the click of the button document that reminder. This information is available to staff to schedule his screenings. The data is also retrieved for sending summary data to the state.

Submit a convincing argument in 400 –500 words that explains the benefits and the challenges of using a CDSS in the clinical situation you choose. Use your readings to support your rationale.