Therapy plans for therapeutic apheresis in Epic HealthLink.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A common required duty of pathology resident physicians while rotating on transfusion medicine is the medical oversight of the therapeutic apheresis service. A task often performed on this clinical medicine service is formulating and writing orders for therapeutic apheresis procedures. The EpicCare tool called the therapy plan provides unique advantages over a standard electronic order set for therapeutic apheresis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Transfusion medicine physicians, apheresis nurses, pharmacists, and information technology professionals collaborated to create therapy plans for three therapeutic apheresis procedures plasmapheresis, red cell exchange, and photopheresis. RESULTS: Therapy plans were implemented and have been well-received for several years. Over a six-year time period, a total of 613 therapy plans were created and signed. We speculate that this implementation may have increased both physician efficiency and patient safety. CONCLUSION: This article reports our experience using therapy plans in EpicCare in order to raise awareness of this tool and to serve as an encouragement for wider adoption.