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The Emergency Department (ED) this month is transitioning to BICS order entry (OE) for inpatients who become ED Boarders, or patients who remain in the ED two hours after they have been admitted to an inpatient service. For these patients, clinicians will no longer be able to write orders in ED order entry (ED OE).
“This change will improve consistency of care when the inpatient boarders move from the ED to inpatient units and eliminate the confusion that can arise sometimes when orders are entered in both ED OE and BICS OE,” Ron Walls, MD, chairman of Emergency Medicine, said.
The change is effective at 6 a.m. on March 20. For all ED Boarder patients (which excludes ICU, observation unit and Cath Lab-admitted patients), clinicians will enter orders exclusively through BICS OE.
ED OE will no longer be available for new orders once the patient becomes a Boarder. Orders previously entered through ED OE can still be reviewed and discontinued if necessary. Orders for ED Boarders that are requested to be done while the patient is still in the ED will be entered through an “ED admission template.” Orders entered in BICS outside of this template will be carried out after transfer to the inpatient unit.
Prompts in the new system will alert clinicians to review all active orders in ED OE before entering new orders in BICS OE. The system will be accessible from ED Tracking and will allow for a combined view of all ED OE and BICS OE orders.
Once a patient is transferred into a bed on an inpatient unit, the admitting team will receive a page at which point routine ordering through BICS OE will resume as usual.