Effective Monday August 30, 2010, warning prompts in Epic will occur when there are attempts to order the basic metabolic panel (Epic LAB15) for the same blood draw as an individual order for one of the components of the basic metabolic panel (Na, K, Cl, CO2, BUN, Creat, Glucose, Ca). Since January 2010, nearly 600 of such duplicates are occurring per month, resulting in time-consuming steps to identify the duplicates and avoid over-billing of duplicated laboratory testing.

Two types of warning screens can occur. One is "SAME SESSION PROCEDURE DUPLICATE" which is when the duplicate orders are input in the same Epic session. The other warning is "PROCEDURE DUPLICATE" which is when there is a duplicate order but input during separate Epic sessions. The warning screens allow for the orderer to cancel one of the duplicate tests.

View screen shots of the warning prompt.

Note that these warnings will only occur when the duplicate tests are ordered for the exact same blood draw.

Questions should be directed to Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, medical director of the Clinical Chemistry (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).