A Prescription for Efficiency: The Effect of an Ambulatory Medication Preference List Optimization

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of optimizing the ambulatory medication preference list on provider efficiency in medication ordering. Using electronic health record (EHR) vendor data, a multidisciplinary informatics team optimized the general ambulatory medication preference list to better align with providers' ordering patterns. We conducted a pre–postintervention analysis assessing time-in-orders per encounter and number of manual changes per order. Postintervention, average manual changes per order decreased from 4.12 to 3.00 (p < 0.01), and median time spent in the orders activity per encounter decreased from 3.1 to 2.3 minutes (p < 0.01). Optimizing the ambulatory medication preference list reduced time spent and clicks needed by providers when ordering medications. This is relevant to ongoing efforts to address EHR-related burden.