Laboratory IT Systems Planned Downtime

All laboratory IT systems will be unavailable from 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 until approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, for critical upgrades and maintenance. ADT, lab orders and results interfaces will also be paused during the downtime. Electronic messages for lab orders will be held in a queue until the downtime is complete. Please follow your standard downtime procedures for lab-related issues, including:

Specimen and lab test orders

  • Lab requisitions for orders that you expect to draw and process during this downtime must be ordered on a paper requisition form, provided by your entity’s lab department. Lab orders that take place after the downtime can remain in Epic and will be processed after downtime is complete.

  • Requisitions must have the unit’s fax number and phone number.

  • Paper requisition forms must accompany every specimen to the lab.

  • All specimens should be labeled using the Epic patient labels. Standard specimen labels generated by Soft won’t be available.

Blood products

  • Blood product scanning in Epic’s Blood Product Administration Module (BPAM) won’t be available.

  • Administer blood products using your downtime procedures.

Glucometers

  • Use glucometers in their downtime mode and document all results on paper.

  • Enter the patient’s CSN from their armband into the meter.

Lab results

  • Results will be faxed to the unit using the appropriate fax number on the paper requisition form.

  • Critical results will be called.

Downtime procedures should also be used for:

  • All bedside/point-of-care testing.

  • ED/ECC lab orders.

Thank you for your patience during this downtime. For questions or assistance, please contact your entity’s lab department. For technical issues, contact the IT Service Desk.

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