Table 2.

Definitions of levels of clinical decision support adapted from Pontefract et al²⁷

Level of decision support	Description	Examples of decision support in this study
Restricted	The prescriber is prevented from proceeding with the prescription with a hard-stop alert; or there is no option to prescribe a particular route, frequency or dose.	Route option/s for specific medications unavailable Not allowing an order to be signed without calculating weight-based dose
Permitted alert (with reason for override)	An alert appears and a reason needs to be given by the prescriber to override the alert and progress.	Drug-drug interaction and allergy alerts that require selection of a reason from a drop-down list
Information alert	An alert appears, but the prescriber does not need to add a reason to override the alert and proceed.	Pop-up alert when prescribing sodium chloride 3% infusion to inform prescriber of restriction to use within intensive care Alert to refresh record after modifying medication chart
Guided	Elements of the prescription order are auto-populated for the prescriber (eg, dose, frequency, route), or highlighting techniques are used to guide the user, eg, through use of different font.	Indication specific order sentences Use of red font to distinguish specific medications in drop-down menus eg, high alert clonazepam
None	No CDS appears at the point of prescribing.