EM Blog

Saturday Overview
Samuel M. Keim, MD
March 28, 2015 - 22:37 -- Samuel M. Keim, MD, MSc

Highlights today included multiple great scientific presentations by students, residents and faculty. Many faculty also moderated sessions. Drs. Meislin, Sanders and Rosen gave pearls of wisdom in a superb panel discussion. I especially loved seeing Dr. Billy Mallon concede defeat to Airway Man aka Dr. John Sakles!

Friday Overview
Samuel M. Keim, MD
March 27, 2015 - 19:30 -- Samuel M. Keim, MD, MSc

Dr. Charles Cairns gave a superb and inspirational talk about how the importance of TIME underlies our patient care and research. Dr. Cairns was personally instrumental in the development of an NIH office of Emergency Medicine research and he gave some highlights of how that discussion went down...with Dr. Francis Collins and other major players at NIH. Incredible!

Dr. Frank Walter, and program leadership staff Amy Williams and Danielle Crounse, have already established a NEW STANDARD of quality for SAEM regional meetings. Multiple out-of-state EM leaders have already approached me to tell me this is the "best Western SAEM meeting they've ever been to."
 

Check out the WSAEM photo gallery
Paulette Pierce
March 27, 2015 - 12:10 -- Paulette Z. Pierce

All the conference photos in one place...and the gallery is growing! Check it out here...

http://emergencymed.arizona.edu/photo-gallery/wsaem-tucson-2015

 

WSAEM 2015
Frank G. Walter, MD
March 26, 2015 - 14:14 -- Frank G. Walter, MD, FACEP, FACMT, FAACT

The 18th Annual SAEM Western Regional Meeting is being held in Tucson, AZ on March 27-28, 2015. We are excited to host two full days of presentations and speakers at the Tucson Marriott University Park, along with some adventurous activities. Click here for the complete Meeting Schedule.

 

WOWs
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 14, 2013 - 11:28 -- Kevin Reilly, MD

Drs. Patrick Hollinger and Merlin Curry using the new WOWs that allow bedside charting with same day chart completion as our expectation.

Paper be gone!
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 13, 2013 - 14:38 -- Kevin Reilly, MD

Dr. John Sakles puts his signature on his last paper chart, ushering in a new era for healthcare excellence at UAHN.

Almost two weeks...
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 13, 2013 - 14:36 -- Kevin Reilly, MD

Almost two weeks into the Go-Live for Epic and our residents are pros! Here River Bouska shows her feelings about paper charts and dictation.

Epic - Day 3
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 4, 2013 - 21:27 -- Kevin Reilly, MD
Photo:  Dr. Chris Williams rocking the InBasket.
WOW, I am so impressed with our residents. My superuser shift was boring today! Well, compared to the first day, it was way less chaotic. I almost got the sense that we are over Epic Go Live and it is now business as usual. Kinks have been ironed out. Direct access to clinical information has been achieved. And now for warp speed. If any of you have watched Dr. Vivienne Ng work on Epic, you know that you are watching a master. Working your way through the workflows will become more automatic and knowing where the next icon will be so you can move the cursor there, will become automatic.
 
Again, I can't say enough good things about our department who have really come together to make this a spectacular implementation. Many of the physicians and staff did not get to meet the Epic technical staff who are doing their magic in the command center, but these guys ROCK! They are smart and dedicated to getting us what we need. Having worked with a lot of vendors in the past, they always want to give you what they got and move on.  Epic folks try hard to give us what we need and have made a commitment to getting it right.
 
Enough for today. Kev moves to night and the next post will be from the dark side.
 
Kev & Lisa
 

Epic - Day 2
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 3, 2013 - 17:08 -- Kevin Reilly, MD
Day 2 using Epic at UAMC saw significant improvements toward perfection. I was so impressed by the physicians in the ED! They rolled with the punches, helped identify issues and tweaks, and really were a great asset to the Go-Live team. Our residents are now experts in SmartTools and already there is fierce competition between Dr. Dan Falvey and Dr. Parisa Javedani to build the perfect SmartPhrase. The gauntlet has been thrown, so watch for the notes in Chart Review.
 
The Epic Command post has logged 3,500 issue tickets and cleared 50% of them. I had the opportunity to watch the command center in action. I walked up with a concern over a cancelled Troponin and was helped by Lenora Sternstein from the orders team and Jeri Loftus from the lab, who did some magic on the computer to find that it was not an Epic problem. It was human error. I was super-impressed with the dedication and expertise of the people behind the computers. I was amazed by the comfortable, professional atmosphere in a room full of folks solving problems. 
 
I am writing this as I leave from my second long day and I can't stop being proud of the organziation for bringing this monumental task to fruition. Let's see what day 3 brings.

First Epic Intubation Benjamin
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 1, 2013 - 18:42 -- Kevin Reilly, MD
The John Sakles first Epic Intubation Benjamin was shared by Dr. Jen Smith and her medical student, Kristin Anchors, for an awesome tube. Congrats to the winners!
 
Kev & Lisa

Epic - Day 1
Kevin Reilly, MD
November 1, 2013 - 18:21 -- Kevin Reilly, MD
Epic is here at last!
 
Overall, we are able to care for patients in a safe environment. Our physicians and staff have done a great job of identifying issues that need attention by the technical team. Most are annoying repairs that are ongoing and tomorrow will be easier than today. Our superusers group has been supplemented by consultants from Encore who have been helping.
 
We have identified a bunch of technical issues that the Epic team will be working on tonight. This evening is better than the morning and tomorrow will be even better. I am so pleased with our physicians' level of preparedness and how great they rolled with the punches.
 
The one learning item that I would like to pass to the docs is that the correct order when a patient is admitted should be "bed request." We should not write an order with the word "admit" in it. That word is for hospitalists.
 
See you all tomorrow in the ED for Epic, day 2.
 
Kev & Lisa

EPIC GO-LIVE!
Kevin Reilly, MD
October 31, 2013 - 15:52 -- Kevin Reilly, MD

We're very excited that Epic is going LIVE tonight at 2:00 am! Keep an eye on the Home page, where Lisa Chan and I will be blogging about important up-to-the-minute news.