Clinical Notes from the CNIO – May 2023

The results are in! Last November, Houston Methodist participated in the KLAS Arch Collaborative survey for the first time to get feedback on the overall Epic experience from you, our nurses and ancillary/allied professionals and our providers. Since 2017, KLAS has partnered with almost 300 health care organizations to identify opportunities for Epic improvements.

Overall, the results show 57% of those surveyed are satisfied with Epic. This places HM in the 82nd percentile when compared to health systems using various electronic health record systems. While this is a positive indicator, it highlights room to improve your EHR experience. As a result, we’re developing an action plan to promote more effective use of Epic, so you can concentrate on what’s most important — caring for our patients.

The survey identified three areas of opportunity including efficiency, integration with other systems you use and training.

See the chart for our results. For more results, click here.

As we build out our action plan, our first steps include helping you develop stronger Epic proficiency and improve your documentation efficiency.

Our IT Training team is partnering with Epic for new models and content. We also have a workgroup of bedside nurses, led by our informatics team, developing a new shift navigator in Epic and additional flowsheet macros to improve documentation efficiency. And we’re always looking for ways technology can help automate documentation to decrease the burdens that pull you away from direct patient care.

This is just the beginning of our efforts as we strive to improve communication, minimize system downtimes and ensure you have a voice within our clinical system governance process.

As we continue to collect, share and act on your feedback, we’ll remain focused on looking for ways to increase your job satisfaction and improve your Epic experience so you can focus on what matters most – our patients.

If you have thoughts or comments, you’d like to share, please click the link below.

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To help us all be safer and protect our precious patient and corporate data be vigilant and follow these guidelines:

• Recognize phishing messages and use the Report Suspicious button in Outlook to report them.

• Be careful what you click. Never open an attachment or click a link unless you know the sender.

• Keep all your work and personal devices updated and running on the most current software.

• Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible, at work and at home. This is an extra layer of security to verify your identity.

• Update your HM password to at least 15 characters or use a strong passphrase.

For more information, review this article from the CIO Quarterly Report.

In addition to an emphasis on cybersecurity, we’re also taking steps to prepare you for any planned or unplanned downtimes. Our nursing informatics team has been rounding in inpatient and ED units at each hospital, distributing new Epic downtime resources including a quick guide and badge buddies and downtime drill forms. Be sure to complete the drill forms by April 21.

Thank you for your participation and partnership in these efforts, especially those identified as our Downtime Champions!

If you have thoughts or comments, you’d like to share, please click the link below.

Share Your Thoughts