What Is Provider Order Entry (POE)?

The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) computerized Provider Order Entry System (POE) is a tool that facilitates automated order entry, and the display and retrieval of information reflective of patient orders. It replaces OrderNet, the previous system used by the Department of Medicine and will ultimately be deployed to every service within JHH and to other sites within the Johns Hopkins community.

POE is used by all physicians to electronically place orders for medications, laboratory tests, radiology examinations, consultations, and other specialty services. POE evolved from thousands of hours of effort on the part of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and ancillary personnel and includes alerts for drug-drug interactions and drug-allergies, as well as dose range checking for medications. In general, physicians, nurses, clinical support staff, and other ancillary personnel will use POE to review patient orders and to document medication administration.

The foundation of the JHH POE system is the Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM) software application, which is marketed by the Eclipsys® Technologies Corporation. Members of the information technology staff have worked closely with clinical representatives of JHH and advisors from Eclipsys to tailor the system and its interfaces to meet the unique needs of JHH.

POE is designed to reduce medication errors and the potential for adverse drug events, standardize patient care, improve the efficiency of patient care delivery, and largely eliminate the need for paper requisitions.