On May 21, UNC Health Care launched its first Epic@UNC Clinical Pathway to support the growing Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program. UNC Medical Center and UNC REX are early adopters of ERAS, which provides surgical patients with better patient outcomes and shorter hospital stays. Other leading hospital systems have used Epic’s Clinical Pathway functionality to improve patient outcomes and reduce unnecessary care variation.
Pathways help us provide consistent, standardized care by outlining the course of treatment needed for patients with common medical conditions or undergoing common surgical procedures. Pathway tools address patient care across the entire care continuum and are divided into a series of steps based on recommended periods and expected patient outcomes.
Each pathway step organizes the outcomes or clinical documentation necessary to complete that step in the patient’s care. This approach enables all clinicians to easily see what steps are expected for a patient with a specific condition, identify what steps have been completed, and document/track patient outcomes on the pathway to ensure that the current plan of care produces the best results for the patient.
- If you take care of Colorectal Surgery patients, Epic@UNC Super Users in pertinent surgical areas have been trained on how to use Clinical Pathways. While Pathways are not a significant change from your normal work flow, your local Super User can help you understand pathways so you – and your patient – can get the most out of the tool.Tip sheets for using Clinical Pathways will be available in the Training Toolkit on the UNC Health Care ERAS Intranet Page.
- If you participate in ERAS care other than Colorectal Surgery, please continue to follow your normal workflows. Our ERAS team will work transition other existing ERAS pathways into Epic@UNC and develop new pathways so we can provide the best possible surgical outcomes for our patients.
Interested in learning more about ERAS? Check out the UNC Health Care ERAS Intranet Page for more information
Have questions about ERAS and/or Clinical Pathways? Send an email to ERASinfo@unchealth.unc.edu.