10 Tips and Tricks to improve efficiency in Epic

Improve Epic Efficiency

February 7, 2015 Page 1

10 Tips and Tricks to improve efficiency in Epic

Click the links below to read about these time saving tips

Personalize your theme Use “Favorites” stars Screen layout Activity buttons Customize menus and toolbars Chart Review filters View multiple encounters or notes in a single pane Use the File Search field Reporting workbench tips Keyboard shortcuts Click the link below to see which Epic applications are installed at each facility

Epic Applications



Personalize your Epic workspace theme -- Know which instance of Epic you are working in Personalize your desktop in Epic will help identify which facility’s instance of Epic is being used

1. Click Epic Personalize Choose a theme 2. Pick a theme that suits you and helps you identify CHCO Epic from UCH Epic

In this example, the user picked the “High Noon” theme for CHCO Epic (on the right), and the “Carbon” theme for UCH Epic (on the left) xto provide an easy visual way to identify which facility’s instance of Epic they are working in. 12 available themes to choose from:

Serenity Carbon Tranquility Doris Day Garden High Noon Horsepower Kyoto Sumatra Modern Blue Rock IT Deep Space

Use the “Favorites” stars Marking an activity with a yellow star will keep it in the list under the Epic button for quick access

1. Click the Epic button 2. Determine which activity under the “Recent”

section should be marked with a yellow star and placed in the top section of the Epic menu

a. The last 5 activities accessed will appear in this section

b. The list of “recent” activities will constantly change, as different activities are accessed

3. Click the white star next to the activity to add it to the top section of the Epic menu a. An unlimited number of activities can be selected and placed at the top of the menu,

however, only the first 10 will have keyboard shortcuts (an underlined number – see Keyboard Shortcuts below)



In the example above, the user wants the “Registration” activity to stay at the top of the menu. They will click the white star to turn it yellow. If they don’t want that activity in the top part of the menu anymore, they will simply click the yellow star to turn it white again

Know the screen layout

1. The area on the screen where work is performed in Epic is called the “Workspace” 2. Every activity will have a different workspace display, however the areas of the workspaces are

relatively similar



Customize Activity Buttons

1. Additional skinny buttons can be added for activities where “More Activities” appears in the lower left corner of the screen

2. Click More Activities then click the white star to add an activity as a skinny button in the activity navigator

a. In the following example, the user will add a “Synopsis” skinny button Click More Activities, then click the white star next to the activity desired. The new button will appear in the activity navigator

Chunky Buttons Skinny Buttons

Unselected

Selected



Customize menus and toolbars

1. Customizations can be made on a variety of activities 2. Click the wrench at the upper right-corner of the main screen to customize the toolbar 3. Click the wrench at the upper-right corner of any activity to customize the activity

Use filters in Chart Review

1. Click Filters 2. Select what to filter on

a. Multiple filters can be used simultaneously b. Blue check marks indicate what is being filtered

In this example, the user filtered on “Diagnosis = Ebola” + “Provider = UCHTEST,AMBIPMD” to narrow down encounter options

3. Filters will automatically clear when chart is closed



Review multiple encounters or notes in one pane

1. Pull up the patient using the Chart activity 2. Click the Chart Review activity 3. Hold the Ctrl button and click the notes to review 4. Scroll down to each note 5. Click Print to print all notes continuously

Use the File Search box for quick access to activities

1. Click in the search box in the upper right corner of the screen 2. Type a description to search

a. e.g. “Registration” 3. Click the item to jump to 4. Continue in activity as normal

Invoke search while in Chart Review to search for all notes with specified criteria 1. Click Chart or Hospital Chart and open the patient’s record 2. Click Chart Review 3. Click in the search box in the upper right corner of the screen 4. Type a description to search in notes

a. e.g. “Foreign Body” 5. Click the item(s) to review

As you scroll down,

each note will be

attached to the next



Searching the chart for “Foreign Body”

Reporting workbench tips

1. Use the search field to look for a report when you know the name of the report, or a word in the title of the report

2. Hover over the report listing and click Edit to enter parameters

3. “AND” indicates firm search criteria; “OR” indicates variable search criteria

a. In the example below, “Less than or equal to 2/5/15 AND greater than or equal to 2/1/15” will list any entries that fall between the dates

b. “Less than or equal to 2/5/15 OR greater than or equal to 2/1/15” will list any entries that have those dates listed anywhere within the criteria

4. Use “SAVE AS” to keep your report parameters, and name the report anything you want for ease

Enter search

term(s)

“AND” = between the dates

Select item(s)

to review

Searched

terms found

“OR” = includes any with these dates



5. Click the white star to turn yellow, and list the report in “My Reports My Favorite Reports”

6. Create folders to drag reports into for organization

Starred

Starred reports

appears here



Keyboard Shortcuts

Data Entry Shortcuts

Key(s) Description Key(s) Description F5 Pulls up a list of options for a field

(i.e. magnifying glass) F6 View comments when comments

are populated

Tab Moves cursor forward from one field to another

Shift + Tab Moves cursor backward from one field to another

Alt + Letter or Alt + Number

Any selection with an underlined letter can be activated by pressing that letter or number simultaneously with the ALT button

Esc Cancels selection or closes option window if one is present

Up Arrow Moves selection or cursor upwards through a list of choices

Down Arrow Moves selection or cursor downwards through a list of choices

End Moves the cursor to the end of the current line of text within a field

Home Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line of text within a field

Ctrl + Right Arrow Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word in the field

Ctrl + Left Arrow Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word in the field

Ctrl + End Moves the cursor to the end of the field

Ctrl + Home Moves the cursor to the beginning of the field

Shift + End Highlights text from the cursor position to the end of the line

Shift + Home Highlights text from the cursor position to the beginning of the line

Entering Dates & Times

Shortcut (type this in a date/time field)

Action Example

Display (using “January 5, 2015 at 08:00 am” as the beginning date/time)

T TODAY

Today’s date

T T+5 T-12

01/05/2015 01/10/2015 12/24/2014

M MONTH

This month

M+1 M-1

02/05/2015 12/05/2014

MB MONTH BEGINNING

The first day of this month

MB MB+1 MB-1

01/01/2015 02/01/2015 12/01/2014

ME MONTH ENDING The last day of this

month

ME ME+1 ME-1

01/31/2015 02/28/2015 12/31/2015

W WEEK

This week

W+1 W-3

01/12/2015 12/15/2014

Y YEAR

This year

Y+1 Y-1

01/05/2016 01/05/2014

N NOW

The time right now

N N+5

N+50 N-25

Numbers indicate minutes

08:00 08:05 08:50 07:35



On Screen Buttons

Button Description Key(s) Description

Exit, clear selection, or delete

Edit

Add an entry, or create a new item

Favorites Yellow = Selected; white = unselected

Run or Save

View details Pointing down = open window Pointing up = close window

Back Go back one screen

Forward Move forward one screen

Options

Search

Properties or Settings

Report

Refresh

Print

Customize

Help



Epic Applications

UCH CHCO Application

ADT (Inpatient and Outpatient Admission-Discharge-Transfer Application)

Anesthesia

ASAP (Emergency Department Application)

Beacon (Oncology Application)

X (going live in Oct 2015)

No (possibly 2016)

Beaker (Clinical Laboratory Application)

No BedTime (Bed Management Application)

Bridges (Interface Application)

Cadence (Scheduling Application)

Care Everywhere (Information Exchange Application)

? Case Management

Clarity (RDBMS Management Application)

Cogito ergo sum (integrated analytics and reporting)

No No Cupid (Cardiology Application) (fka Cardiant)

Data Courier (Data Environment Propagation Utility)

No (possibly 2016)

Piloting in 2015 Epic Bedside (Patient Inpatient Chart Access)

No (possibly 2016)

? Epic CRM (Customer Relations Management/Home Health Care)

Epic Everywhere (allow communication between Epic clients)

No (possibly 2016)

? Epic ICON (Infection Control Application)

EpicCare Ambulatory (Ambulatory Medical Record Application)

No No EpicCare Home Health (Specialized Home Health Application for use in Patient Homes)

No No EpicCare Hospice (Specialized Hospice Application)

EpicCare Inpatient (Universal Hospital System)

EpicCare Link (Web-based Application for Community Users)

EpicWeb (Web-based Clinical Application)

Haiku/Canto (Device Mobility Clinical Application) (Haiku = android; Canto = apple)

HIM (Chart Tracking, Chart Deficiency Tracking, Release of Information Application, Coding & Abstracting)

No No ICU module

Identity (Master Patient Index [MPI] Application)

Kaleidoscope (Ophthalmology Application)

No Lucy (Free standing Personal Health Record)

MyChart (Patient Chart Access) (UCH = "My Health Connection" or "MHC")



UCH CHCO Application

No (possibly

2015) Nurse triage

OpTime (Surgical Application)

No (possibly

2015) Phoenix (Transplant Application)

No No PlanLink (Service for providers and employers)

Prelude (Inpatient and Outpatient Registration Application)

Radar (Dashboard Application) (fka MyEpic)

Radiant (Radiology Application)

Reporting Workbench (Operational Reporting Application)

Resolute (Billing Application) includes: HB (Hospital Billing) PB (Professional Billing)

Rover

No (possibly

2016) Stork (OB/Gyn Application)

No (possibly 2016)

No Tapestry (Managed Care Application)

No Welcome (Patient Self-Service Kiosk)

Willow (Hospital Pharmacy Application) (fka EpicRx)

No Willow Ambulatory (Outpatient Pharmacy Application)

Documents

10 Tips and Tricks to improve efficiency in Epic