Physician Response to Computer Reminders

A computerized medical record system was designed to detect and remind the responsible clinician about clinical events that might need corrective action. These reminders significantly increased the clinician response rate (in terms of test orders and treatment changes) to the events in question. The addition of relevant medical literature citations to the reminders did not significantly change the clinician response rate as compared with that with reminders alone, nor did it stimulate the physicians to read any of the cited articles kept in an immediately available "library" of reprints.