Transitioning Ineffective Medications on Hold Alert from Interruptive to Noninterruptive Alert to Decrease Alert Burden.

Interruptive clinical decision support (CDS) alerts are intended to improve patient care, but can contribute to alert fatigue, diminishing their effectiveness. The alert demonstrated minimal clinical effect while contributing significantly to alert fatigue.This study aims to evaluate if transitioning a high-firing medication on hold alert from interruptive to noninterruptive would change provider practices.The alert was triggered when at least two medications were held for >48 hours. A pre-post intervention cohort study was conducted to evaluate transitioning the medication on hold alert from interruptive to noninterruptive. A comparison was made to evaluate provider practices in resuming medications during the 6 months before and after transitioning the alert. Data were extracted from the medication administration record and the institutional risk reporting system.After transitioning to a noninterruptive alert, the number of actions taken by clicking on the alert decreased from 33,632 (3.0 clicks per hospital encounter) to 305 (0.02 clicks per hospital encounter) in a 6-month period. There was no significant change in the median hold duration of medications that were on hold for greater than 48 hours (81.5 hours and 85.6 hours in the pre- and postintervention cohorts, respectively [