Analysis of Health Management Systems and Electronic Health Records
Epic
Patients benefit in many ways from Epic. First, patient safety is enhanced with computerized physician-order entry. Epic has clinical decision support built in that alerts physicians during the ordering process. For example, if a patient is allergic to penicillin and the physician places an order for a drug containing penicillin, an alert will pop up to warn the physician the patient is allergic to the drug. Physician orders are legible and immediately available to the pharmacy, lab, and caregivers. Patients have fewer delays in getting medication or tests because orders are transmitted directly to all areas. There are many safety checks in the medication administration process using bar-code medication administration. All medications have a bar code on them, as do patient armbands. Before giving a medication, the nurse will scan the drug and the patient’s armband. The Epic system will check to make sure that medication is ordered for that patient, and if not, a warning pops up to say the medication is not ordered. Comprehensive discharge instructions called the “after-visit summary” are created throughout the patient’s stay from documentation from all providers. The summary contains information about follow-up appointments and specific information about home medications. A physician can access a patient’s medical record from any computer connected to the Internet to have complete information available when answering nurses’ phone calls about changes in patient condition. Medication errors and adverse drug reactions will be avoided by the drug-interaction alerts built into the Epic system. Clinical-decision support and alerts built into the Epic system will help ensure the correct medications are ordered and administered. Documentation of allergies will be