Clearly alert fatigue is real, and there needs to be an attempt to find that "sweet spot" between over- and under-alerting such that patient harm is minimized. EHRs typically license medication and medication interaction databases from external content vendors. This same content exists (along with the same warnings / alerts) whether or not they are embedded in the EHR, available via manual inputting to a separate online app, or contained in print in a large reference book. The duty to the patient re medication safety is the same - whether or not the information / alerts are viewed and acted upon, viewed and ignored, or never viewed.

EHRs allow for viewing of such content / warnings without double entry or without consulting a reference text. EHRs can (and currently often do not)further enhance that experience by allowing for filtered views.

The fix to this problem starts with "fixing" medication interaction reference materials - and then "fixing" EHR filtered views.