Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “handle medication refill requests”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

30 min
typically, every day
50%
of the time can be automated
Easy
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Process fixBest fix

Set up standing refill protocols the team can follow

Written protocols let nurses or MAs approve routine refills for stable patients, and the EHR can queue them with the needed checks. Clinicians only see the exceptions.

Typically saves about 40% of the time3 h to set up
  1. 1List your most common refill medicines.
  2. 2Write criteria for each (last visit, labs, dose unchanged).
  3. 3Get them approved by the medical director.
  4. 4Ask IT to build refill protocol support in the EHR so the checks show automatically.

Tools: Your EHR (Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen or similar)

Fix 2 of 2

Software feature

Turn on the EHR's AI-drafted replies for patient messages

Epic and other EHRs now offer AI-drafted replies to patient portal messages and summaries of long threads. You edit and send instead of writing each reply.

Typically saves about 20% of the time15 min to set up
  1. 1Ask your clinical informatics team whether AI message drafts are switched on for your department.
  2. 2Use the draft as a starting point; edit for accuracy and tone.
  3. 3Never send a draft without reading it in full.
  4. 4Give feedback in the tool when drafts are wrong.
  5. 5Only use tools your organization has approved and covered by a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) for anything with patient information.

Tools: Epic Art (In Basket AI message drafts) · Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent · athenahealth AI features · Microsoft Dragon Copilot

Quick wins

Have you tried…

Have you tried the AI-drafted replies for patient messages in your EHR?
Some EHRs, including Epic, can now draft a reply to a patient message for you to edit and send. Your informatics team can tell you if it is switched on.

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

NurseMedical assistant / front deskPhysician / clinician

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Other common tasks for Nurses