Epic upgrade launches this month
Cincinnati Children’s will go live with an upgrade to Epic on Sunday, March 11. Some of the enhancements are specific to certain areas, e.g., Home Care, Radiology, Anesthesia, etc., but others will affect all Epic users.
The most noticeable improvement is the Hyperspace look and feel. You’ll be able to choose new, simpler themes with more vibrant colors. Many changed and content-appropriate icons give additional visual cues so you can more quickly locate information in your reports and navigators. There is an expanded print window, a mouse-free Master Navigation menu that allows you to access common Hyperspace navigation options in one place, and dimmed flowsheets for nurses who document at night.
Many other enhancements will be rolled out, including:
- A whole new After Visit Summary (AVS) with design elements, like a next-steps sidebar and icons that make it easier for patients to see important information and stay engaged after a visit or discharge.
- More information in the Patient Lookup window to help you quickly verify that you have selected the right patient. The patient’s photo will display in the Patient Select Results window, if one exists. If the patient is deceased, that notice will appear in the Patient Results window in red, as well as in the far-right Status column.
- Streamlined information in Chart Review
- The ability to load more pharmacies and send prescriptions to multiple pharmacies in one session
- Epic Link updates, e.g., the ability to search patient charts more quickly, an updated look and feel for certain folders and a new Referral Search activity.
A downtime is scheduled for Epic on Sunday, March 11, from 1 am EST through 5:30 am DST. Note that Daylight Savings Time will go into effect during that period, so what looks like a 4½-hour outage will really last only 3½ hours.
You can find more information about the upgrade, along with a list of job aids that address changes in specific areas, in the Epic Upgrade newsletter on CenterLink under the Epic tab.
