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Making the most of EPIC


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I walked out of the ED this morning having written my last paper chart (supposedly); our hospital goes live with EPIC today. I know a lot of folks are using this EMR in their ED's; does anyone have any tips on creating macros, smart phrases, etc?

 

We've been told that setting up our own shortcuts like this will make things significantly more efficient; do any of you have any "must have" smart phrases that make your documentation life easier?

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"Supportive care to include aggressive oral hydration, increase rest, and appropriate nutrition. May use acetaminophen/ibuprofen as directed for the treatment of discomfort and/or fever. Warm salt water gargles every 1-2 hours as needed for sore throat". Then I add pertinent qualifiers to personalize for pt.

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EPIC is a tool like any other. It's usefulness depends on the way you use it. I use it in family practice, and they love to tell you that the "smartphrases" etc will make your life easier, and they might. Now I just dictate into my phone, and actually do the bare minimum. The neat thing about the templates is that you can import the med list, med history, etc automagically.

I have found that using the software provided dictation does not allow you to access the other screens- for example, if you wanted to review the allergies while dictating, you can't, because it seems to be locked onto the recording screen.

What I have thought about doing is dictating, then using a "dot phrase" for routine and normal exams- For example, rather than dictating my way through a whole normal neuro exam, I just .neuro it, and a normal neuro exam is listed in the dictation. This requires me to edit it when it comes in, however.

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Thanks for the tips. After my first 12 hours of EPIC today I think that I will grow to like it (although it probably helped that we were stacked with extra providers). The one thing I did take away; more proof that the typing class I had to take in high school was the most useful class of my teen years! I really feel bad for the folks who were doing the two-fingered hunt and peck technique.

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