Cerner Ambulatory Powerform for Point of Care test resulting

We have Cerner for our HIS, but not LIS, for approximately 10+ years now.  The direct care staff that do not have interfaced devices use an electronic form for manual POCT documentation - I am not certain if it qualifies as a 'Powerform', but I would guess it does.

While it is certainly useful (especially the fact that when used, the POCT results generated on the form, flow to the All Data/Lab Data tab the same way core lab data does), it has its limitations.  The biggest one is that no field can be made to be a mandatory entry.  The user can call up the form and either document incorrectly - or more commonly, incompletely - and there is no mechanism integral to the form to prevent it.  All that can be done is a field can be made 'required' - which only means it backlights in yellow.  They can still exit the form with it incomplete.

There can be an audit report of the completed forms sent to a designee; it is essentially a spreadsheet.  This can be used for compliance purposes, and does help.  But it is a bit of an endless battle, as you no doubt know.  As a result, I try to limit as many tests as possible to manual methods as there are always compliance issues with documentation.  Same as a paper log - maybe worse!

On testing such as Strep A Antigen, pregs....how do you document internal QC, lot numbers, expiration dates?  I was wondering about being able to have the person resulting the test result, enter this information as well, and, hopefully eliminate some of the paper logs we keep.

Thanks

The forms (at least ours) have a place for all that, but the problem is consistent completion of those areas, so you could actually give up your paper logs. The entries cannot be made to be mandatory, so the staff either forget or deliberately ignore the fields.  And I think for many people, they expect that if there is a need for more information, the form should let them know that they haven't completed all the entries they should.  The Cerner forms will not do that.  My impression is they do not want to restrict the nurse's hands that much by locking them into mandatory entries.

Fortunately I have only Pregnancy tests being entered including the on board QC result, Lot# and Exp date. I still have them using a paper log so that I can do a clerical check every day.

They fax me their results, I compare it to the log I print out from Explorer, and then against a list of the female surgical patients from that day.

If there is an error, I email the manager and they have the operator make a correction.

It is a hassle but we've been doing this for at least 3 years now and there are at least 3 corrections to be made each week, mainly correcting the patient result or correcting the QC result. To me the big one is that at least twice a month they don't put in a patient result at all.

I've told them that when I have 6 months of no corrections, I would consider getting rid of the logs.

We stopped using manual logs, I attached a copy of POC patient result report in Cerner. We trained staff to enter all results in the computer including patient results, internal control, kit lot# and kit expiration date.

Thanks,

Seham Cramer, BS MT(ASCP)
Lab Director
Baylor Surgical Hospital at Las Colinas (BSHLC)
400 West LBJ Freeway
Irving, TX 75063
Office: 972-868-4045

That is good to hear... I really want to eliminate paper as much as possible. 

I did not see the attached result report in the file cabinet.  Is there another place I can retrieve it from?

 Meeting the standard test report regulations in Powerform and not having to add to work flows has it's advantages

The attachment was rejected.

Send me your email and I can forward it to you.

Hi  My email is schute@crhc.org

Thank you

Could I get a copy as well? lightstar1976@gmail.com

Thanks!

I would like a copy as well. My email is sclark@mercydesmoines.org . THANK YOU!