Technology offers potentially attractive solutions to patient safety concerns. Evidence is accumulating that
errors can be reduced and practitioner performance improved through the implementation of computerised
prescribing systems (CPS), but few interventions are free of unanticipated consequences. The aims of this
session are to: share the learning from a case study of a large acute hospital in the UK with a sophisticated
CPS; explain how unanticipated consequences arise in the sociotechnical system, illustrate these with
examples, both beneficial and potentially harmful, and identify how they affect patient safety; emphasise the
importance of being vigilant to the effects on patient safety when new technology mixes with long
established work patterns; and invite comment and discussion about how health care organisations can
harness beneficial effects and mitigate potential harm