The flu vaccine for 2018-19 will be available starting Sept. 4. To prepare for the coming flu season, the following changes were made in Epic to improve efficiencies and address concerns from last year.
- Several rows have been removed from the flu screening questions, including the Last Influenza Vaccine date field and Is there an influenza vaccine shortage question. You still may see a read-only version of the row if a patient’s data was entered in a previous encounter. The row will continue to display, but you can’t enter new data. You can find the previous encounter’s information by selecting Last Filed in the Navigator or Flowsheet view.
- A callout (<< ) in the Last Filed column of flowsheet rows identifies vaccines administered outside the current encounter.
- The After Visit Summary (AVS) will not print if an active flu vaccine is on the MAR. The AVS will be released for printing once the vaccine is documented on the MAR or if patient refusal is documented on the Screening flowsheet.
- A BestPractice Advisory (BPA) will fire after three days LOS and again at discharge if any immunization is active on the MAR, not just the flu vaccine. Be sure to read the BPA text carefully.
- If a BPA is triggered to complete screening or to administer an active immunization, but the decision was made not to administer prior to discharge, the order must be discontinued or the patient refusal or specific contraindication must be documented in the appropriate Screening flowsheet to satisfy the BPA. The BPA will not acknowledge refusals documented on the MAR.
- REMINDER: Add the flu-related patient list columns to My List. For steps to add columns, view the Patient List and Creating My List tip sheet.
- The Flu Vaccine column indicates the status of vaccine administration (Declined, NA, Give Prior to Arrival, etc.).
- The Flu Scrn Done column indicates if the flu screen is complete for this encounter.
