Clinical Decision Support Interventions

LeaEHR CMS logorn More about CDS Interventions

The following is email communication from CMS.

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) is a key functionality of health IT that contributes to improved quality of care and enhanced outcomes by avoiding errors and adverse events, improving efficiencies, reducing costs, and enhancing provider and patient satisfaction.

In Stage 1 of meaningful use, eligible professionals and eligible hospitals must implement one CDS rule. In Stage 2, eligible professionals and eligible hospitals must implement five CDS interventions and enable and implement functionality for drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction.

New CMS Guidance for Clinical Decision Support Interventions
Although the trigger intervention certification criteria require EHR technology to produce an alert at relevant points during patient care, the meaningful use objectives give providers flexibility in the types of CDS interventions they employ, and do not limit them to “pop-up” alert interventions.

Providers can meet the objectives by using other kinds of CDS, including, but not limited to:

  • Clinical guidelines
  • Condition-specific order sets
  • Focused patient data reports and summaries
  • Documentation templates
  • Diagnostic support
  • Contextually relevant reference information

For more information on CDS, review the Clinical Decision Support tipsheet and the new FAQ.