Sept. 30, 2021 In the Know with Your CMIO After a long day and an arduous commute, my home’s front door is a comforting site. A front door serves many functions — it provides access, invites the right people in and keeps the wrong people out — but a well thought out front door is welcoming and engaging. It keeps you connected to the outside world and invites the outside world to stay connected with you. HM’s “digital front door” is equally important. It consists of digital touchpoints throughout each patient’s health care journey that keep patients engaged and connected. Through initiatives such as easy-to-use MyChart features, improved virtual visit platforms, patient cost-transparency tools, MyMethodist Patient tablets, Alexa Dots in patient rooms, Care Sense text messaging, Care Everywhere patient records exchange, new Epic specialty integrations and more, we’re transforming and leveraging innovative, easily accessible technology to provide an exceptional patient experience. Our digital front door continues to evolve, and we’re committed to providing digital platforms that are engaging, intuitive, easy to use for both patients and providers and enable more personalized digital encounters. For providers, a more digital, integrated and connected experience allows for more streamlined workflows, better clinical collaboration and communication and quicker and easier access to a patient’s full health care story, across many areas within our hospital system. These combined efforts mean more automation and fewer time-consuming manual processes, so you can focus on what you do best — caring for our patients. Dr. Nicholas Desai In This Issue All Providers
ED, Inpatient and Outpatient Providers
Inpatient Providers
Providers Placing Outpatient/Discharge Orders
SPG/PCG Providers
Good to Know For All Providers Earlier this month, new visitation guidelines were implemented to align with the new state law. Currently, we’ve identified:
To help make this process easier for you, we’ve made the following enhancements to your Epic visitation restriction workflow. You can now:
For more information: Epic Update For All Providers The next Epic Update is Sunday, Oct. 24, showcasing useful new features and enhancements, such as:
To prepare, be sure to review your Update Companion. You can click the applicable links below or log in to Epic, and press F1 to go to the Epic Learning Home. Note: Your Update Companion will reflect an Aug. 15 date. That's the most current version. Update Companion links by role: For All Providers To continue accessing Haiku/Canto after the Oct. 24 Epic Update, make sure you’re using Haiku/Canto 9.7 or later. Prior versions won’t be supported after the update. For instructions, read the Update Haiku/Canto to the Latest Version tip sheet. For All Providers Some Epic functions will be unavailable, and no changes or enhancements will be made from Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 5 a.m. to Sunday, Oct. 24 at 4 a.m. You’ll still be able to work in Epic as usual, but you won't be able to do the following:
For All Providers In preparation for the Update, Epic will experience a planned downtime on Sunday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 4 a.m. During the downtime, access Epic Read-Only. Note: Data in Epic Read-Only is current until the downtime begins. You can’t document or place orders in Epic Read-Only. For more details, review the Planned Downtime Instructions. COVID-19 For All Providers Admitted patients are now required to receive a COVID-19 antibody titer test. The COVID-19 Serology Patient Surveillance order now automatically displays under the Admission Orders tab in Epic. Note: This order requires a provider signature during admission order reconciliation. For All ED, Inpatient and Outpatient Providers Starting today, your patient’s COVID-19 vaccine status will now be color-coded on Storyboard. This makes it easier for you to identify whether your patient has completed, started but not completed or not started a vaccine series, so you can provide vaccination guidance, if needed.
To see an example of each color-coded status, click here. Key Updates For All Providers You can now quickly view a patient’s Texas Immunization Registry (ImmTrac2) vaccination records in the patient’s chart in Epic. This includes patient-specific COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 vaccine information. To access:
Important Note:
For All Providers The Reconciling Outside Immunizations workflow has been updated to help ensure the most correct data is reconciled into the patient's chart.
Example:
(1) To review details, expand the rows of similar external administrations. (2) Replace the historical administration with the similar external administration. For All Providers The TPN Monitoring report is now available to providers and has been enhanced. It includes information on electrolyte and lipid emulsions administration outside of TPN and laboratory trends, appropriate for daily monitoring. You can find the TPN Monitoring report under Summary reports in Epic. For All Providers and Residents When discharging a patient who’ll be admitted at another HM hospital, SNF or LTAC, you’ll now receive a BPA reminding you to reconcile the patient’s PTA medications. The BPA will display the patient’s current PTA medications and any actions taken on them, so you can reconcile them before the next encounter. For All Providers On Friday, Oct. 1, diagnosis codes will be updated to the latest Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO) standard — our routine, yearly update within Epic. For more information, including a list of new terms and modifier changes, visit the IMO website. All Providers Placing Outpatient/Discharge Orders Starting Monday, Oct. 4, certain medications will require you to enter an associate diagnosis before you can generate and send the electronic prescription. This step will help minimize outpatient/post-discharge medication delays and reduce calls from the pharmacy requesting more information to fill a prescription (e.g., Medicare Part B medications requiring an associate diagnosis before being filled). If the medication you’re prescribing requires an associate diagnosis, you’ll now be prompted to enter the information. To see screenshots reflecting this change, read the full article. For All SPG/PCG Providers On Monday, Oct. 4, Caregility for MyChart video visits will be updated to help you conduct more efficient video visits. There are no changes to your current workflows, but you’ll notice new features and a new look within your video visit. New features and enhancements include:
To find out more:
For All Inpatient Providers On Sunday, Oct. 24, the new Epic Deterioration Index (EDI) will be available through Epic for early detection and intervention of at-risk patients by inpatient providers and med/surg and ICU nurses. The EDI replaces the Rothman Index, providing clear, easy-to-understand and statistically equivalent deterioration scoring. Early detection of patient deterioration can improve accuracy of at-risk patient identification and decision-making time, leading to improved patient outcomes. EDI continuously tracks 16 patient variables to yield a numerical score based on:
The color-coded EDI score appears on the Summary Report or you can add a Deterioration Index column on the Patient List. The score will also be available on the previous Rothman display boards. Reminders All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Providers For All Inpatient Providers For Inpatient Providers and Radiologists For All Ordering Providers For All Outpatient Providers For All HMSL and HMWB Providers Ways to Reach IT IT Physician Help Desk:
Houston Methodist IT Website for Physicians: |