Module 2 - Information Systems at Work

As I alluded to in my last post, we are currently using Epic in our clinics. The first couple days back have been hard, but things are getting easier and I am getting more efficient. When we first started using Epic (we are a group practice of 13) each provider was doing her own thing, which made sharing patients difficult. We had to find a way to standardize the way that we looked at the patient's chart and the way that we charted our visits, otherwise we were worried we might miss something critical. The first thing I did was to sit down with our Tech support and learn the nuances of Epic. Then I wrote a 1 page reference sheet that was laminated and given to each provider. This sheet was a "Chart Review Guide." It instructed providers to first look at the communication tab, then the problem list, then the lab results and the the OB navigator. This way we were sure that small pieces of information were not lost from provider to provider. Next I created, with the input of each provider, a series of 12 smartphrases, this helped us standardize our charting and greatly reduced the amount of time that we spent typing. What we soon found out was that smartphrases alone were not sufficient (the were unstructured and thus did not allow us to query data and perform searches). We are currently in the process of redoing our charting to be more structured. Cross you fingers, it will be an interesting journey!