eStar Thrive training program expands with new offerings through the summer

Thrive is a supplemental training program for eStar that is specifically tailored for outpatient clinicians. The program was launched in June with a set of pilot sessions and has since been expanded to continue through the rest of the summer.

Thrive will help clinicians:

• Expand their eStar knowledge
• Gain additional confidence in system use
• Further personalize eStar to their specific preferences and needs

Thrive training is based on best practices from other Epic implementation sites and is one of Epic’s most sought-after post-implementation programs.  It is only available following Go Live, as the program builds on the skills and knowledge clinicians have developed after using Epic in real-life patient care situations.

Each training session focuses on a specific area, which can be taken in any order:

• Notes
• Ordering and diagnoses
• Clinical review
• Use of InBaskets

While not required, Thrive training is highly recommended.  

All classes will be held in the Critical Care Tower (CCT) or at One Hundred Oaks (OHO) and are first-come, first-served.  Classes at CCT are limited to 14 people per session and at OHO to 15 people per session. 

Clinicians may register by emailing estartraining@vanderbilt.edu  with their preferred date/time or by going directly to the VUMC Learning Exchange to self-register.  Click the Enroll button and then use the Choose Session option to select the session that works best for you. 

Clinicians may also attend Thrive training as a group. Clinician leaders may email estartraining@vanderbilt.edu to request a reserved block of time.

Updates and Changes within eStar

Included below is a summary of some of the largest changes within eStar over the last several days (as well as some that are scheduled to be completed soon):

Acknowledging Critical Alerts

There are now new ways to acknowledge eStar critical alerts, both from within the system itself as well as from your smartphone.

From within eStar:

1.     Patient Header: If you have a new critical alert, a red flag will show in the Patient Header indicating a critical alert. Double Click on flag to acknowledge the alert.

2.     Patient List: You can also acknowledge a critical alert within eStar from the Patient List. 

From your smartphone:

Go to https://alertsmobile.app.vumc.org/alerts-mobile/ and sign in to acknowledge alerts from your phone (Mobile Alerts replaces existing Voice Response System).

Expired Medications and Discharge Medication Reconciliation

On June 28, there will now be a new option to continue expired non-long-term medications when performing discharge medication reconciliation. Previously, expired non-long-term medications were requiring that discharging clinicians instruct patient to 1) stop taking medication or 2) create a new prescription.

This change is being made to help optimize clinicians’ medication reconciliation workflow at discharge and ensure options around expired non-long-term medications are consistent with other medications,

This change only applies to non-long-term expired medications. Selecting “Continue” will, on after visit summary (AVS), instruct the patient to continue taking the medication and ask his/her prescribing clinician about the medication. To make the medication active again and instruct the patient to continue taking it: select “prescribe”, then remove “end date,” and select order class “no print”. This will reactive order and will not send a new prescription.

Please refer to the Tip Sheet “Discharge Medication Reconciliation and Expired Medications” (available within the Learning Home Dashboard and from Hubbl) for more information.