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Clinical Center News
October 2016

Hospital Updates from Health Information Technology Day

Elaine Ayres (center) and Frank Mickey (left)
Elaine Ayres (center), deputy chief in the laboratory of informatics development, Frank Mickey (left), from the Department of Clinical Research Informatics, and Heather Bridge, from the Office of Human Subjects Research Protections, discuss e-consenting and test the tablet consent form.

On Sept. 29, in honor of National Health Information Technology Week, the Clinical Center held Health IT Day to highlight upcoming changes and provide training opportunities on the medical record system, secure health messaging, patient and clinician portals, and more. Key takeaways from some the sessions include:

Enterprise scheduling system goes live in October to better communicate and coordinate patient care

Denise Ford, chief of the Department of Patient Relations and Recruitment Services, shared information on the CC's new enterprise scheduling system that went live Oct. 3. The new system provides real time, accurate patient appointment information in CRIS to over 4,000 users. The system replaces scheduling.com, a third-party scheduling system which has been used in the CC since 2005.

Over 210,000 patient appointments are scheduled in the CC annually. In 2015, the new system was fully implemented in the Dental Clinic, Rehab Medicine Department and Radiology and Imagining Sciences. With the knowledge gained from the rollout in those three areas, the CC implemented Phase 1 of the enterprise scheduling system in October throughout the remaining 29 clinics, day hospitals and procedure/testing areas. Scheduling.com has been officially "retired" and all areas previously using Scheduling.com are now up and running on the new enterprise scheduling system in CRIS. Phase 2 of the implementation, which will link medical orders to appointments and standardize the appointment request process, will be completed in early 2017.

Department of Laboratory Medicine replaces CareFusion with new SoftID software to improve efficiency, safety

Chung-Hee Row, with the Department of Laboratory Medicine, presented a session on the replacement of CareFusion specimen collection system with SoftID. SoftID is an electronic positive patient tracking solution which provides phlebotomists and nurses with an efficient, mobile and dependable means of verifying patient identification for blood collection. The new system, which began in November, will "improve workflow efficiency and patient safety," according to Row.

Among many updated features, the new system will now provide staff with a barcode label for specimens that informs them, with greater specificity than ever before, which test tube is required for a test. For example, for a glucose blood sugar level test staff need a grey test tube topper, for a complete blood count test staff need a lavender tube topper, and if the bleeding time of a patient is being tested, then staff need a blue tube topper. With so many classifications of color and size for tubes, the new labels placed on them now have more text space to better identify the actions needed which allow staff to complete faster and safer testing.

Department of Clinical Research Informatics and Health Information Management Department pilot e-consenting

The Department of Clinical Research Informatics and Health Information Management Departments (HIMD) have an e-consenting pilot underway in Radiation Oncology. As part of the pilot, staff are using mobile devices/tablets to consent patients with an electronic 'fillable' document that is saved and uploaded into CRIS (the medical record system).

"The ultimate goal [is to] expand it throughout the hospital," said Tricia Coffey, chief of the HIMD, who presented during the days' events.

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