What is Patient Storyboard in Epic? [Guide]

The Patient Storyboard within Epic Systems Corporation's comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) platform represents a consolidated, visually-driven interface. This tool provides clinicians with a holistic view of a patient's medical history, encompassing key clinical data points from various sources within the Epic database. Understanding what is the patient storyboard in Epic requires recognizing its role in streamlining workflow and enhancing patient care coordination by presenting pertinent information in an easily digestible format.

Understanding the Epic Patient Storyboard: A Modern Healthcare Imperative

The Epic Patient Storyboard represents a pivotal advancement in electronic health record (EHR) technology.

It's more than just a digital chart; it's a dynamic, visually driven interface designed to synthesize vast amounts of patient data into a readily digestible format.

Its core function is to empower healthcare professionals with the information they need, exactly when they need it.

Defining the Epic Patient Storyboard

At its heart, the Epic Patient Storyboard is a visual interface within the Epic EHR system.

It is engineered to consolidate critical patient information into a single, unified display.

This display provides clinicians with an "at-a-glance" overview of a patient's medical history, current condition, and ongoing care plan.

The Storyboard acts as a central hub, aggregating data from disparate sources within the Epic system.

The Purpose: At-a-Glance Patient Insight

The primary purpose of the Patient Storyboard is to provide healthcare providers with a comprehensive and easily accessible view of a patient's health status.

Instead of navigating through multiple sections of the EHR, clinicians can quickly grasp key details.

This includes medications, allergies, lab results, and relevant clinical notes, all presented in a logical and intuitive manner.

This streamlined access to information enables more efficient and informed decision-making.

Core Functionality: Data Aggregation for a Unified View

The Storyboard's functionality revolves around the seamless aggregation of patient data.

It pulls information from various modules within the Epic system, including:

• Inpatient and Outpatient Encounters
• Laboratory Results
• Medication History
• Imaging Reports

This data is then organized and presented in a user-friendly format, allowing clinicians to quickly identify trends, potential risks, and areas requiring immediate attention.

By consolidating these disparate data streams, the Storyboard creates a holistic patient profile.

Importance in Healthcare: Efficiency and Patient-Centered Care

The Epic Patient Storyboard's importance in modern healthcare cannot be overstated.

It significantly improves clinical efficiency by reducing the time spent searching for patient information.

This allows clinicians to dedicate more time to direct patient care and collaborative decision-making.

Furthermore, the Storyboard promotes patient-centered care by providing a comprehensive view of the patient's needs and preferences.

This comprehensive view ensures that treatment plans are tailored to the individual patient, leading to better outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.

Key Components: Exploring the Patient Storyboard's Features

Transitioning from understanding the Storyboard's purpose, let’s dissect its anatomy. The Epic Patient Storyboard isn't a monolithic entity; it's a carefully constructed assembly of essential elements and supporting data, each serving a distinct function in delivering a comprehensive patient overview. Understanding these components is critical to leveraging the Storyboard's full potential.

Essential Display Elements: The Core Information Hub

The essential display elements form the Storyboard's foundation, providing immediate access to the most critical patient information. These elements are strategically positioned to enable quick assessment and informed decision-making.

Patient Summary: The Snapshot View

The Patient Summary serves as the Storyboard's introductory panel. It typically includes a concise overview of the patient’s current condition, relevant medical history, and any urgent alerts or flags. This section acts as a high-level snapshot, allowing clinicians to rapidly grasp the patient’s overall status.

Synopsis: Medical History in a Nutshell

The Synopsis provides a more detailed, yet still condensed, narrative of the patient's medical journey. It highlights key diagnoses, procedures, and significant events in their healthcare history. This ensures context is readily available, supporting more nuanced clinical judgments.

Care Team: Identifying Key Stakeholders

The Care Team module lists all providers and staff members actively involved in the patient's care. This promotes clear communication and accountability, ensuring that everyone is aware of their role and responsibilities. This is also extremely beneficial for reaching out for additional consultation or insight.

Patient Demographics: Establishing Identity

While seemingly basic, accurate Patient Demographics are paramount. This section confirms patient identity, ensuring that the correct information is being accessed and utilized, and that care is not misguided.

Problem List: Tracking Medical Issues

The Problem List is a dynamic compilation of the patient's current and past medical problems. Effective management of this list is critical for longitudinal care, as it allows providers to track the evolution of health issues and tailor treatments accordingly.

Medications: A Current and Past Record

The Medications module provides a comprehensive list of both current and past medications. This is extremely important for identifying potential drug interactions, contraindications, and adherence patterns. This is especially true given the polypharmacy considerations with older patients.

Allergies: Avoiding Adverse Reactions

Documented Allergies are prominently displayed to prevent potentially life-threatening adverse reactions. Accurate and up-to-date allergy information is non-negotiable for patient safety.

Supporting Data and Tools: Enhancing the Clinical Picture

Beyond the essential display elements, the Storyboard offers a range of supporting data and tools that enrich the clinical picture. These features provide additional context, facilitate documentation, and promote patient engagement.

Immunizations: Ensuring Preventative Care

The Immunizations module tracks the patient’s immunization history, ensuring compliance with recommended vaccination schedules and protecting against preventable diseases. This is critical for both individual and public health.

Test Results: Objective Data Points

Key lab results and imaging findings are readily accessible through the Test Results module. These objective data points provide valuable insights into the patient's physiological state and support diagnostic accuracy.

Flowsheets: Visualizing Trends Over Time

Flowsheets allow for the visualization of tracked data, such as vital signs, over time. This enables providers to identify trends, assess treatment effectiveness, and proactively address potential issues.

Care Plans: Guiding Treatment Strategies

Care Plans outline specific treatment goals and interventions tailored to the patient's needs. These plans promote coordinated care and ensure that all members of the care team are aligned on the patient's treatment strategy.

Notes: Capturing the Clinical Narrative

Clinical Notes provide a space for detailed documentation of patient encounters, assessments, and treatment plans. These notes capture the nuances of the patient's experience and provide a valuable record for future reference.

Home Medications: Addressing the Full Medication Profile

Home Medications lists the medications a patient takes at home, which may differ from those prescribed within the healthcare setting. Accurate reconciliation of home medications is crucial for preventing medication errors and ensuring patient safety.

Patient Education: Empowering Patients

The Patient Education module provides access to educational materials that can be shared with patients to improve their understanding of their conditions and treatment plans. This empowers patients to take an active role in their care.

Patient Goals: Aligning Care with Patient Values

Documenting Patient Goals ensures that care is aligned with the patient's values and preferences. This patient-centered approach fosters trust and improves patient satisfaction.

Social History: Understanding the Patient's Context

The Social History module captures information about the patient's lifestyle, habits, and environment. This contextual information can significantly impact health outcomes and inform tailored interventions.

SmartTools: Streamlining Documentation

SmartTools, such as SmartTexts and SmartPhrases, streamline documentation by allowing providers to quickly insert pre-written text into notes and other fields. This saves time and improves efficiency.

Storyboard Variations: Ambulatory vs. Inpatient Views

Transitioning from understanding the Storyboard's purpose, let’s dissect its anatomy. The Epic Patient Storyboard isn't a monolithic entity; it's a carefully constructed assembly of essential elements and supporting data, each serving a distinct function in delivering a comprehensive patient overview. Understanding these variations is crucial for maximizing efficiency and providing tailored care in different settings.

Ambulatory Storyboard: Tailored for Outpatient Care

The Ambulatory Storyboard is specifically designed for use in outpatient clinic settings within EpicCare. It focuses on presenting the most relevant information needed for routine and specialty care visits. The goal is to provide a concise, easily navigable view of the patient's health history and current status.

Key Features of the Ambulatory Storyboard

Streamlined Information Display: The ambulatory storyboard emphasizes outpatient-specific data, such as scheduled appointments, recent visit summaries, and medication refills.

Focus on Preventive Care: It prominently displays information related to preventive screenings, immunizations, and chronic disease management. This helps providers proactively address patient needs during routine visits.

Integration with Scheduling Workflows: The ambulatory storyboard is often integrated with scheduling workflows, allowing providers to quickly access relevant patient information when preparing for appointments.

Inpatient Storyboard: Optimized for Acute Care Management

The Inpatient Storyboard is tailored for use in hospital settings, providing clinicians with the information needed to manage acutely ill patients. It highlights data pertinent to inpatient care, such as current orders, vital signs, and active problems.

Key Features of the Inpatient Storyboard

Emphasis on Real-Time Data: The inpatient storyboard prioritizes real-time data, such as continuous monitoring results, active medication infusions, and pending lab results.

Focus on Acute Problems: It highlights current diagnoses, active treatment plans, and any urgent alerts or warnings.

Enhanced Collaboration Tools: The inpatient storyboard often includes features that facilitate communication and collaboration among members of the care team, such as shared notes and task lists.

Key Differences and Considerations

While both Ambulatory and Inpatient Storyboards share core functionalities, their design and content differ significantly to meet the specific needs of each setting. The Ambulatory Storyboard emphasizes longitudinal data and preventive care, while the Inpatient Storyboard focuses on real-time data and acute problem management.

Healthcare organizations must carefully consider these differences when implementing and customizing the Epic Patient Storyboard. Proper configuration and training are essential to ensure that clinicians can effectively utilize the Storyboard to improve patient care in their respective settings. Ultimately, optimizing these Storyboard variations enhances clinical efficiency and contributes to better patient outcomes.

User Roles: Who Utilizes the Patient Storyboard?

Transitioning from understanding the Storyboard's purpose, let's dissect its anatomy. The Epic Patient Storyboard is not a monolithic entity; it's a carefully constructed assembly of essential elements and supporting data, each serving a distinct function in delivering a comprehensive patient overview. But the Storyboard’s potential is only fully realized through the diverse users who interact with it daily. Understanding who uses the Storyboard and how they leverage it is crucial to appreciating its impact on healthcare.

Clinicians: The Primary Users

Clinicians, including doctors, nurses, and physician assistants, are the primary users of the Patient Storyboard.

They rely on it for a comprehensive view of the patient’s medical history, current condition, and care plan.

Doctors

Doctors use the Storyboard to review patient histories, lab results, and imaging studies, enabling them to make informed diagnoses and treatment decisions.

The Storyboard's aggregated data helps them quickly grasp the patient's overall health status. This, in turn, facilitates more efficient and effective consultations.

Nurses

Nurses leverage the Storyboard to monitor patient vital signs, administer medications, and document patient responses.

They use it to stay informed about changes in a patient's condition. This allows them to proactively address potential issues.

Physician Assistants

Physician Assistants (PAs) use the Storyboard in a similar fashion to doctors. They review patient data, develop treatment plans, and document patient encounters.

The Storyboard provides PAs with the necessary information to deliver quality care and collaborate effectively with other members of the care team.

Super Users: Champions of Efficiency

Super Users are proficient clinicians who possess advanced knowledge of Epic and the Patient Storyboard.

They act as resources for their colleagues, providing support and guidance on how to effectively use the system.

Super Users often play a key role in training new staff and implementing system updates.

They serve as liaisons between clinical staff and the IT department, communicating user feedback and helping to optimize the system.

Patients: Empowered by Information (MyChart)

While patients don't directly interact with the Patient Storyboard within the clinical setting, they benefit from it through improved care coordination and communication.

Access to portions of their medical record through MyChart, Epic's patient portal, allows them to actively participate in their care.

Through MyChart, patients can view their medications, lab results, and upcoming appointments. This fosters a sense of ownership and promotes better adherence to treatment plans.

Epic Systems Corporation: The Foundation

Epic Systems Corporation is responsible for developing and maintaining the Epic EHR and the Patient Storyboard.

They provide the software, updates, and support necessary to ensure that the system functions effectively.

Epic continuously innovates and enhances the Storyboard based on user feedback and evolving healthcare needs.

Epic Analysts: Customization Experts

Epic Analysts are responsible for configuring and customizing the Epic system, including the Patient Storyboard.

They work closely with clinical staff to understand their needs and tailor the system to meet specific organizational requirements.

Analysts configure the Storyboard to display relevant information for different user roles and clinical specialties.

Epic Trainers: Guiding the Way

Epic Trainers play a vital role in educating clinicians and other users on how to effectively use the Epic system, including the Patient Storyboard.

They provide training sessions, develop educational materials, and offer ongoing support to ensure that users are comfortable and confident using the system.

Effective training is essential for maximizing the benefits of the Patient Storyboard and promoting its widespread adoption within a healthcare organization.

Organizational Impact: Integrating the Storyboard into Practice

Transitioning from understanding who uses the Storyboard, it's essential to examine how healthcare organizations integrate it into their daily routines. The Epic Patient Storyboard's true value lies not just in its features, but in how seamlessly it becomes embedded within the fabric of clinical operations. Its implementation has a profound effect on clinical efficiency, inter-professional communication, and, most critically, patient outcomes.

Transforming Clinical Workflows

The integration of the Epic Patient Storyboard represents more than just a technological upgrade. It fundamentally alters the way clinicians interact with patient data and with each other. This integration offers hospitals and clinics a streamlined approach to information retrieval and management.

Efficiency Gains: The Storyboard significantly reduces the time spent searching for patient information. By centralizing critical data, it eliminates the need to navigate through multiple charts or systems. This efficiency gain translates into more time for direct patient care, which is invaluable.

Standardized Care: The Storyboard also promotes standardized care protocols. The consistent format and readily available information ensure that all members of the care team are working with the same data. This reduces the risk of errors and inconsistencies in treatment plans.

Enhancing Communication Among Care Teams

Effective communication is the cornerstone of high-quality healthcare. The Patient Storyboard facilitates clear and concise communication among all members of the care team.

Shared Understanding: By providing a shared view of the patient’s condition, the Storyboard fosters a shared understanding of care goals and progress. This is particularly important in complex cases involving multiple specialists.

Improved Handoffs: Handoffs, a critical point of potential error, are significantly improved with the Storyboard. The ability to quickly review the patient’s history, current status, and planned interventions ensures a smooth transition of care responsibilities.

Improving Patient Outcomes

Ultimately, the integration of the Epic Patient Storyboard is aimed at improving patient outcomes. By optimizing workflows and enhancing communication, the Storyboard contributes to safer and more effective care.

Informed Decision-Making: Clinicians can make more informed decisions with a complete and readily accessible patient history at their fingertips. This can lead to more accurate diagnoses, better treatment choices, and fewer adverse events.

Patient-Centered Approach: The Storyboard promotes a patient-centered approach to care. By understanding the patient’s full medical context, providers can tailor treatment plans to meet their individual needs and preferences.

Strategic Implementation Considerations

Successful integration of the Patient Storyboard requires careful planning and execution. Organizations must consider several key factors:

Training and Support: Adequate training is essential to ensure that all users can effectively utilize the Storyboard. Ongoing support and resources are also necessary to address any challenges that may arise.

Customization: The Storyboard should be customized to meet the specific needs of the organization and its various departments. This may involve tailoring the layout, adding custom fields, or integrating with other systems.

Workflow Redesign: Organizations may need to redesign their clinical workflows to fully leverage the capabilities of the Storyboard. This may involve changes to staffing models, documentation processes, or communication protocols.

Overcoming Implementation Challenges

Despite its benefits, the integration of the Epic Patient Storyboard is not without its challenges. Common obstacles include:

Resistance to Change: Some clinicians may be resistant to adopting new technologies or changing their established workflows. Addressing this resistance requires strong leadership, clear communication, and a focus on the benefits of the Storyboard.

Data Quality Issues: The accuracy and completeness of the data in the Storyboard are critical to its effectiveness. Organizations must have robust data governance processes in place to ensure data quality.

Technical Difficulties: Technical issues, such as system downtime or integration problems, can disrupt workflows and frustrate users. Organizations must have a reliable IT infrastructure and a plan for addressing technical issues promptly.

Measuring Success

To ensure that the integration of the Patient Storyboard is achieving its intended goals, organizations must track key metrics. These may include:

Time spent searching for patient information Rates of medication errors Patient satisfaction scores Hospital readmission rates

By monitoring these metrics, organizations can identify areas for improvement and demonstrate the value of the Patient Storyboard.

So, that's the patient storyboard in Epic in a nutshell! Hopefully, this guide has demystified it a bit and given you a better understanding of how this powerful tool can help you provide even better patient care. Now go explore, and happy charting!