THE PHYSICIAN HANDOFF

FINALLY WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark Lepore, MD
November 18, 2014
Primary Contact
This new field, “Primary Contact”, took the place of
the “Physician Contact” in Cerner on Wednesday
11/12/14.
Primary Contact
When either updated from the “Physician Handoff” or
from the “Admitting Physician” from the admission
order, the “Primary Contact” now appears on the
Banner Bar, in the former place of the “Resident”
field:
Primary Contact
Assigning the Primary Contact
In order to assign the “Primary Contact”, THE
PROVIDER MUST BE ASSOCIATED WITH A
CARE TEAM.
Therefore, if you cannot find yourself or a
provider who is to be the “Primary
Contact’, then do the following:
Assigning the Primary Contact
Open “Physician Handoff”:
Assigning the Primary Contact
Open the drop down menu:
Assigning the Primary Contact
Select “Manage Care Team Providers”
Assigning the Primary Contact
Select a Medical Service list and select a Team from
the drop-down menus, then search for the provider to
assign
 Assigning the Primary Contact
Note: There are some Medical Services (i.e.
Hematology/Oncology, Hospitalist (for Santa Paula
Hospital)) that will have no teams associated with them,
but others (i.e. Internal Medicine, OB/GYN/Newborn,
Surgery Orthopedics, etc.) that will have a number of
teams associated with them (i.e. VCMC Inpatient
Medicine Teams A, B, C, D and E; VCMC
OB/GYN/Newborn and SPH OB/GYN/Newborn; VCMC
Surgery and SPH Surgery; VCMC Orthopedics and SPH
Orthopedics, etc.).
Initial Population of the “Primary
Contact” Field
The “Primary Contact” will be initially assigned from
the “Admitting Physician” field on the “Admit to
Hospital” and “Assign to Observation” orders.
This will likely become a mandatory field on those
orders, and SHOULD BE FILLED IN BY THE
ADMITTING RESIDENT. (any objections?)
“Resident Physician” field will likely be removed from
those orders in subsequent weeks.
Changing the Primary Contact
Once a provider is able to be assigned to the “Primary
Contact” field (because they are associated with a
“Care Team”), that field can be updated in the same
way the “Physician Contact” has been modified:
Changing the Primary Contact
Open the drop down menu:
Changing the Primary Contact
Click the Primary Contact button
Changing the Primary Contact
Assign yourself (1) or someone else (2)

2
Printing the Physician Handoff
Printing either an abbreviated patient list or an
expanded "Handoff" list will both be very easily and
successfully performed from the Physician Handoff
page drop down menu
(FINALLYYYYY!!!!!!!!).
Printing the Physician Handoff
Open the drop down menu:
Printing the Physician Handoff
Click the “Print” button
Printing the Physician Handoff
Can print “Simplified” or “Detailed”
I-PASS and Physician Handoff
To access the “Physician Handoff” and I-PASS, click
the right arrow next to the patient name:
I-PASS and Physician Handoff
I-PASS should pop up and can be populated with
handoff data
I-PASS and Physician Handoff
I-PASS should pop up and can be populated with
handoff data
I-PASS
Illness Severity
Code Status
Patient Summary
Actions
Situational Awareness
Synthesis by Receiver
(Diagnoses)
Clinical Data Tab
Clinical Data tab gives labs over last 24 or 48 hours
Care Team Tab
Care Team Lists
Click the “Care Team Lists” button
Care Team Lists
Patient Assignments
To add patients to “Patient Lists”:
Go to the patient’s chart
Click “Patient”, then “Add Patient to
Patient List”, then choose the list to which
to add the patient
Patient Assignments
To add patients to a “Care Team List” – MUCH more
irritating and complicated
Long and the short, you have to find the
list to which to add the patient, then click
on the TITLE OF THE TEAM LIST
(destination), and THEN it allows you to
add the patient to that list (example would
violate HIPAA since CERT is down)
Patient Assignments
“Patient Lists” vs. “Care Teams”
The "Care Team" concept is something new that
Cerner has introduced that nearly completely changes
the way in which teams are thought about in the
hospital. The fundamental difference between a
“Team” on Patient Lists and a “Team” with the new
Care Team concept is as follows
“Patient Lists” vs. “Care Teams”
-"TEAMS" in the current patient lists (seen on
Physician Handoff) are exclusive for patients -- you
can only belong to one team (i.e. VCMC Inpatient
Medicine Team A, and NOT VCMC Inpatient
Medicine Team B or C or D (there are exceptions
which I'll ignore for simplicity)).
 “Patient Lists” vs. “Care Teams”
"TEAMS" in the sense of Care Teams are more about the
PROVIDERS and the groups that they belong to -- and
then those teams associate with individual patients.
So, as a patient, you can now belong to "VCMC Inpatient
Team A" care team, along with the "Hematology/
Oncology" care team and probably a whole bunch of other
care teams.
Providers will need to associate themselves with a Care
Team, and then the Care Team will be associated with the
patient.
“Patient Lists” vs. “Care Teams”
It is nearly impossible to remove oneself from a “Care
Team”, so you’ll end up on a bunch. This is quite
irritating. Something I want to work on with Cerner
Thanks to Sanjiv Ekbote, Sabrina Clemore, Aimee
Brecht-Doscher, Carrie Holt, Terry Theobald, and all
of the others who worked on finally making this
work!!!