Critical pathways in cardiology
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Telemetry monitoring is often overused in the inpatient setting. This has led to overcrowding of telemetry beds, increased wait times in the emergency department, and inefficient allocation of hospital resources. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guidelines exist to guide appropriate utilization of cardiac monitoring. We sought to investigate the effect of the institution of an electronic ordering system (EOS) on adherence to guideline-based telemetry use. ⋯ The institution of an EOS significantly improved compliance with ACC/AHA guidelines for cardiac monitoring at the time of admission. However, compliance worsened after the initial 48 hours, which may have been due to the ease of online reordering with our EOS. Clinically significant events were only observed in patients who met criteria for monitoring. EOS can be a useful tool to improve adherence to guideline-based utilization of hospital resources.