Evaluating medication record creation before and after an electronic health record transition

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital transitioned from Cerner Millennium to Epic in 2022.
• This EHR migration necessitated a complete overhaul of the medication build and configuration process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze lessons learned during the EHR transition, focusing on the medication build and configuration process.
• To enhance the medication build process for increased collaboration and standardized procedures.

Main Methods:

• Stakeholder meetings were held with operational leadership, informatics, medication safety, and pharmacy inventory management.
• The medication build process underwent initial creation and iterative refinement.
• Communication and usability enhancements were implemented.

Main Results:

• The transition highlighted differences in medication build management between the old and new EHR systems.
• An initial learning curve led to increased turnaround times for medication builds.
• Iterative improvements and enhanced communication significantly decreased turnaround times.

Conclusions:

• Aligning operational processes with user needs, iterative improvements, and effective communication are crucial for EHR medication build processes.
• The refined process maintains oversight and quality control for medication build requests.
• This experience provides valuable insights for creating or transitioning EHR medication build processes.