An update from Craig Norquist, MD, chief medical information officer (CMIO)

HonorHealth recently underwent another upgrade to a newer version of Epic. As mentioned before, a previous upgrade had more issues or bugs and created some issues. This latest upgrade went much better, but we still want to hear from you regarding any disruptions to your workflow. Oftentimes upgrades do not seem to improve your workflows immediately, but over time, they include small features that add up and help.

Epic measures users’ efficiencies and time spent in the system on various features, such as notes, in-basket or orders, and benchmarks both departments and users against other Epic customers of similar user backgrounds. If you would like to see your own profile and user stats, please reach out or navigate to signal.epic.com. If you do not have access to the user web or signal, we would be happy to help. You will need to use your HonorHealth email address. The data on signal is much more robust and mature for ambulatory users than for inpatient, but the inpatient data is improving.

Join us for Efficiency Hour – January-February 2023.

The network is in the process of converting ECG machines to Phillips. If ECGs are not available in Epic after completion, ask the tech to ensure the file was transferred and not stored locally on the machine. This way the ECG will be viewable to others as soon as possible. We are working with the techs to ensure this is done every time but with all new processes, it may take time to become consistent.

Preference labs and additional trainings are available from our own HonorHealth training teams. If interested, contact [email protected] to schedule additional training. For those looking for more advanced trainings and tips, consider becoming an Epic PowerUser through online trainings via Epic. Through the Epic user web, you can navigate to training home and select PowerUser and the track you want to learn. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like me to help you sign up. Once you have completed the courses and a small ‘project,’ you will be a certified power user and more advanced in your use of the tools available. Though not mandatory, we are hoping that those who become power users will help others in their use of Epic to become more efficient as well.

Several large projects are underway in informatics including order set review, note template refresh and renew, and problem list management. Each of these is a monumental task in and of themselves, and they each will help us become a more efficient and effective organization in utilization and notes. If anyone is interested in helping with these projects, please reach out to anyone in informatics.

As always, please reach out if there are concerns or suggestions on how we can do better.

Thanks,

Craig

Craig Norquist, MD, FACEP, FAMIA (he/his)

Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO)

Program Director, Clinical Informatics Fellowship