By Dr. A. Carbonell
General View Alert Pointers:
1. View alerts can be time consuming, I recommend that you wait until your administrative time and carve out a block of time to go through them and just click Process All , make sure that they are in alphabetical order so that all of the associated patient alerts will come together - if you are unsure of this just click on the bar that says patient right under notifications and this will automatically put everything in alphabetical order
2. If you would like to address a specific view alert, you can double click on that alert and it will bring up that alert only
3. If you clicked and alert but do not have time to address that at that moment (patient arrives, you must do some research, etc.) At the bottom of your CPRS screen in the lower right corner where it says “NEXT”, right click on the bar (DO NOT HIT THE NEXT BUTTON) and select Renew. This will leave the view alert in your Queue for you to address later
4. Once you click “Next” The alert will be gone unless they ask you for a cosignature, labs will never ask you for a cosignature, your nurse will ask for a cosignature and some consultants will ask for a cosignature to ensure that you review to the alert.
5. All patient’s need to be notified of lab and imaging results within 14 days. I recommend that even if the labs are normal and the patient has an appointment with you within 2 weeks that you still send a test results notification letter that states that the results are normal (this is in case the patient cancels the appointment, etc.) – the best way to do this is with the first lab result in view, click on Most recent labs and review all of the most recent labs, click on notes and make your test results notification note (or administrative note if more appropriate) , when you click next it will continue going through your view alerts but this way you are sure that you have addressed the labs.
6. For abnormal imaging that needs follow-up, the best practice is to order the follow-up imaging at that time and send the patient a letter to let them know that they need follow-up imaging
7. If labs come back abnormal and the patient does not have an appointment you can make an Administrative Note with your wishes to either schedule the patient for an appointment or have your nurse call the and tag you’re nursing staff or your clerk to make the appointment or call the patient
8. If you need to order a consult because of an alert order this and make and administrative note or test results notification to alert the patient that you have placed a consult