Hospital workflows play an important role in the quality and timeliness of patient care in any organization.
And, in an industry where these workflows can provide potentially life-saving information, optimizing workflow management and maintenance processes is incredibly important. Fortunately, this is where Epic Grand Central comes in.
Read on to learn more about the solution and key advantages for your healthcare organization.
What is an ADT System?
An admission-discharge-transfer (ADT) system is one of the most crucial hospital workflows within your hospital information system (HIS), regardless of the size, location, or specialty of your organization. ADT systems are responsible for tracking patient stays from the time a patient is admitted to the time they are discharged or transferred to another facility.
An ADT system not only tracks patients throughout their entire care lifecycle, but it also supports electronic medical record information for patients, including name, age, medical record numbers, and contact information. And, by storing all patient information in one system, records can easily be shared or transferred if needed, allowing other organizations or facilities access to important data that can sometimes be the difference between life and death for a patient.
And, the ADT solution in Epic provides the tools and resources needed for users to optimize patient tracking activities and acts as a sort of “Grand Central Station” for patient data, including location tracking, patient transport, and bed planning across organizations.
What is Epic Grand Central?
The Grand Central Epic module is the enterprise ADT solution housed in the Epic system. Grand Central provides the right tools needed to properly track and manage patient stays from pre-admission paperwork and procedures to and through discharge or transfer to another facility.
This comprehensive patient tracking system offers a few key activities to help system end users better manage patient data and track patient stays in real time:
- Patient transport
- Multi-facility bed planning and management
- Patient and facility location tracking
- Housekeeping
And, as an added benefit, Epic offers built-in utilization reports and analytics that make keeping track of activity progress and completion even easier. The Epic Grand Central ADT system was built to simplify patient care operations and optimize patient management activities throughout the entire patient lifecycle at any given organization or facility.
Key Advantages of ADT Systems (like Grand Central)
An ADT event occurs whenever there is patient movement from one care setting to another, whether that involves being admitted to a hospital, transferred to a long-term care facility, or discharged to the patient’s home. Because there are so many guidelines and rules to follow when it comes to the movement of a physical patient and their corresponding medical records, a system that helps physicians and other care providers keep track of important patient information is necessary.
ADT systems simplify record keeping and patient tracking processes, and, in turn, give physicians better insight into patient care lifecycles and help increase system productivity.
Here are a few of the key benefits of using an admission-discharge-transfer system like Epic Grand Central in your organization:
Improvement of Patient Care (and Satisfaction)
The Grand Central module offers improved organizational and maintenance practices that help increase the availability and accessibility of patient information and medical history for healthcare providers and other staff members.
With better data management and improved utilization of comprehensive patient records and medical history, healthcare providers can improve their quality of care and overall patient satisfaction. For example, if a patient with extensive medical history or a long list of allergies is admitted to the hospital, physicians with Grand Central have more immediate access to such information, and they will even receive a notification to alert them of the patient’s history.
This way, physicians are able to view medical records, assess the issue at hand, and provide reliable treatment plans — all while upholding quality and timeliness standards.
More Reliable Patient Data
When patients are admitted, an ADT system begins collecting patient information automatically and creates a workflow that both tracks and stores that information in a unified system. The automated nature of admission-discharge-transfer systems also provides up-to-date patient information that is both timely and reliable. And, the context provided by improved analytics and insights, including patient notes and medical history, improves the reliability of patient information.
With better access and more reliable data, physicians are able to make more informed decisions regarding the diagnosis and treatment of patients and improving patient satisfaction in the process.
Integration Between Systems
Connections between hospitals, healthcare organizations, and other care facilities are important in optimizing patient flow and maximizing the efficiency of patient care processes.
Setting up ADT interfaces that allow systems to work together notifies system users of any patient changes and gives them access to more useful information concerning patient stays. And, by having more access to important information, healthcare providers are able to make better decisions that help improve the quality of care and reduce hospital readmissions in the long run.
As is the case with many other assigned Epic module integrations, Grand Central has pre-built capabilities that allow it to seamlessly connect to other parts of the Epic system. This way, systems like Grand Central, Prelude, and Cadence can work together to provide the highest quality of patient care by optimizing system operations and keeping all data stored in a single, unified system.
Epic Grand Central .vs. Prelude: What’s the Difference?
Now that you’ve read a little more about Epic Grand Central and admission-discharge-transfer systems in general, let’s chat about the ways Grand Central differs from Epic Prelude.
What Does Epic Prelude Do?
Epic Prelude is the patient registration and tracking system within Epic Systems that helps healthcare providers manage patient information and statuses from the time they enter the facility to the time they leave. Prelude also offers key functions that help providers and other members of a patient’s care team stay on top of insurance coverage and documentation.
With the Prelude module, Epic users are enabled to…
- Manage admission, discharge, transfer processes and protocols more efficiently
- Maintain accuracy and reliability of important patient information
- Connect insurance providers to clinical staff and admitted patients
- Ensure proper documentation, coverage, and financial assistance for patients
The Prelude module allows staff members to use real-time data and analytics to maintain patient statuses and identity throughout their entire patient care cycle. And, Prelude offers system capabilities that ensure proper insurance coverage, patient care documentation, and financial assistance.
How Are the Solutions Different?
On one hand, Epic Prelude focuses on managing patient registration, status, identity, and disposition from the time they’re admitted to a hospital or care facility to the time they’re discharged or transferred.
On the other, the Grand Central module is centered around optimizing patient-tracking functions and using advanced reports, analytics, and additional support resources within the system to simplify patient care practices.
Note: If you’re interested in learning more about Epic Prelude (and its key benefits), check out our latest Prelude article, “Epic Prelude Overview: Key Features and Differentiating Factors”.
How Do Epic Prelude and Grand Central Work Together?
While Epic Prelude focuses more on managing patient registration, status, identity, and disposition throughout their patient experience, Grand Central optimizes patient-tracking functions and offers additional support resources to simplify patient care practices.
The solutions do share quite a few commonalities and oftentimes work in conjunction with each other, but while the Prelude module still focuses most of its efforts on tracking patient disposition and managing insurance functions, Grand Central works to ensure that ADT functions are used properly to track and maintain patient stay practices.
Let’s take Patient A, for example…
Patient A gets admitted into the hospital for a complication with his recent heart procedure. The nursing staff and clinicians assigned to Patient A will leverage Epic Prelude functionality to assess their current status and manage all of the pre-admission documentation practices and paperwork for newly-admitted patients.
Once Patient A is admitted and all of the preliminary paperwork is complete, members of the hospital staff assigned to the patient can use advanced analytics and reporting functionality to simplify patient care practices and leverage Epic software to improve the quality of care throughout the entire patient lifecycle.
Getting Started with Epic
Implementing a system like Epic with so many different modules, applications, and integration capabilities can seem like quite a daunting task for an unprepared team.
Luckily for you, that’s where Surety Systems can help. Our team of senior-level Epic consultants has experience in virtually every module of the Epic system and just the right “Epic tool belt” to lead your team through even the most complex implementation processes with flying colors.
Whether you need an extra hand optimizing business processes throughout your Epic system, managing Epic system configuration within your organization, or any other Epic-related tasks, our consultants are here to help you.
How Can We Help?
Need help implementing a full suite of Epic modules in your healthcare organization? Our consultants know just what it takes to achieve implementation success. Just need some assistance integrating Grand Central into your already established Epic system? They can help with that too.
And, to give you an idea of what to expect when partnering with our Epic project team, we’ve included a sample profile of one of our Epic consultants:
Surety Senior Epic Grand Central Consultant
- 13+ years of Epic experience, Certified in Epic Clarity Data Model
- Epic ADT/Prelude/Grand Central expertise
- Experience with HL7 and ASC X12 5010 interfaces
- Project Management, Analyst, and Trainer expertise
- Build, Testing, Go-Live Optimization, and Upgrade experience
Contact us today to get started with one of our expert Epic consultants.
