Best Practice Advisories are a central tool in the Epic decision support system that serve as reminders or warnings to clinicians during their workflows. Advisories can appear based on specific patient, provider, and facility criteria as defined. Within the BPA, the clinician may have the option to review patient information, select orders, or provide an acknowledgement reason.

Resources

The following resources provide information on BPA functionality.

  • Admission Order Requirements Prior to Patient Discharge - (Handout) CMS guidelines require that the Admission order be signed by a provider with admitting privileges PRIOR to discharge. Best Practice Advisories (BPAs) will remind staff of these requirements and will fire if the Admission order hasn’t been signed and the Patient Class is INPATIENT or OBSERVATION and/or the Level of Care is INPATIENT.

  • BPA Source Attributes - (Handout) Provides details on the resource URL, developer, funding source, and revision date for various BPAs.

  • Certification for Continued Hospitalization - (Handout) Medicare rules for inpatient hospitalization 20 days or greater require that the attending physician certify the need for continued hospitalization and an estimate of the time the patient will remain in the hospital. For stays approaching 20 days, a BestPractice Advisory (BPA) will fire to the attending provider requiring completion of the certification order.

  • ED Sepsis Bundle Attestation - (Handout) The SEP-1 (sepsis) quality metric requires the LIP to document before the 6h mark the response to the initial fluid bolus. When the ED LIP is required to complete this documentation, a BPA will display.

  • HCC Coding - Nursing - (Handout) HCC coding utilizes International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10-Clinical Modification (CM) coding to assign risk-adjustment scores to patients. Nursing staff should always review the diagnosis codes and Problem List with the provider prior to documentation of the HCC coding and Assessment and Plan note.

  • HCC Coding for Providers - (Handout) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) created the Hierarchical Coding Categories (HCC) coding model. HCC coding utilizes International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10-Clinical Modification (CM) coding to assign risk-adjustment scores to patients. This document provides education on how to address the HCC Coding Best Practice Advisory (BPA) from Storyboard.

  • Opioid Prescription BPA for Providers - (Handout) Learn how UIHC is using BPAs to address the Opioid Epidemic.

  • Patient Belongings at Discharge - (Handout) Patient belongings need to be documented at admission, on transfer (by both the sending and receiving staff), and at discharge. Epic provides a Best Practice Advisory (BPA) to remind end users to review belongings at discharge.

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