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Medicine Matters

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Medicine Matters Home Patient Care Epic Tip of the Week: April 24, 2020

Epic Tip of the Week: April 24, 2020

Inpatient & Ambulatory: Asymptomatic COVID-19 Infection Screening Protocol

  • The COVID-19 NAT, NP Swab order contains a required question for indicating if the test is for the asymptomatic screening protocol.
  • At this time, the asymptomatic patient protocol includes women in labor and pre-surgical/pre-procedural patients. This screening will facilitate surgery scheduling and planning.
  • If the asymptomatic patient undergoing screening is hospitalized, a banner will display in Patient List and Summary Overview reports, and certain Chart Review reports, reminding caregivers about appropriate precautions.

Inpatient & Ambulatory: Outside COVID-19 Results

  • The “CRISP to Epic” results interface pulls the National Emergency Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) data feed to CRISP from both the District of Columbia [DC] and Maryland.
  • All positive COVID-19 results that were NOT ordered at a JHM facility will flow into Epic. These results trigger the COVID-19 flag, which remains on the patient chart for 14 days.
  • Hovering over the flag will show that it was added by an external result.
  • If a problem is noticed, such as a missing result or inaccurate result, please call 4-EPIC, or enter a Epic Help desk ticket (by clicking on the red Epic button, then Help, then Epic Help).

Inpatient: Positive COVID-19 Result Notification

  • The Medical Microbiology Laboratory no longer calls positive COVID-19 results to ordering ED and inpatient providers. Providers should follow-up on COVID-19 results in Epic.
  • Positive results will be communicated by HEIC (Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control) via push notifications.
  • To receive push notifications via Haiku or Canto providers select the “bell” icon when placing the order, or from the Lab Tracking Summary report.
  • The current turnaround time for COVID-19 NAT results is less than 24 hours.

Inpatient: COVID-19 Test with Sputum source for Inpatient ordering

  • The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) NAT, Sputum (LAB49628) order is limited to ordering for currently admitted patients who have had a negative nasopharyngeal swab and for whom there is a strong suspicion for COVID-19 pneumonia.
  • DO NOT order induced sputum for patients under investigation for COVID-19, as it is an aerosol generating procedure.
  • This order fires the same Infection Flags as the current COVID-19 orders. The ordering provider completes order questions based on the patient's location. A STAT option for this test is not available.

Screenshots of the above can be found here.

COVID-19 Epic Training Portal link

Epic Training Portal link

For more Epic Tips of the Week, click here.

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Kelsey Bennett