November 7, 2014

Blue Cross Announces Health Information Exchange to Its Members
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California are contacting their members directly about "A New Way For Doctors To Share Your Health Records."

Called "CalINDEX," this is an effort to aggregate claims and clinical data across California and make it available to providers, payers and researchers in a secure and controlled way. It is in its formative stages.  Blue Cross members have been notified that they may elect to "opt out" of participation even though it is not yet launched. It is too early to tell whether this will be helpful to us at Stanford, but we are following up with the leadership at CalINDEX to learn more. More information is available https://www.calindex.org/ Please contact Christopher (Topher) Sharp for questions: csharp@stanfordhealthcare.org

What's New and Coming Soon in Epic
Patients with  MyHealth account able to submit updates to their Allergies and Medication lists
Starting 11/10/14,  patients with active MyHealth accounts will be able to provide updates to their Allergy and Medication lists.  Clinicians can review and add (or discard) these updates using Epic to "Reconcile Outside Information" in a MyHealth encounter, admission or other outpatient encounters. Related Article: Import Allergies, Medications and Problem List.

Weekly Respiratory Virus Surveillance Graph, October 27 – November 2 (PDF)
Please click here for this week's respiratory virus surveillance graph.

Ebola Preparedness and PPE Training Update
On October 20, we launched the next level of training for employees who have volunteered to care for any potential Ebola patients. An exact replica of a Stanford Hospital isolation room has been created within the Immersive Learning Center and volunteer team members are being trained in the proper use of personal protective equipment, including impervious biohazard suits, in this highly realistic and controlled environment. High fidelity mannequins are utilized to simulate the care that would be required to safely treat a critically ill patient with Ebola. To date more than 50 providers have completed the intensive training.
Should Stanford ever receive an Ebola patient, our top priority is the safety of our staff, patients and visitors. Stanford's Ebola preparedness efforts began in early August and build on our emergency preparedness planning that has been underway for many years. Learn more about how we continuing to prepare and train staff in this story on SHC's intranet.

Patient Safety Alert:  Sepsis Identification and Treatment - 11/7/14
- New Sepsis Clinical Pathway has begun.
- Goal is treatment within one (1) hour.
- Use new sepsis order set: IP MED SEPSIS [3974]
- Crisis nurse responds to all positive severe sepsis screens.

For questions about this new pathway, contact Lisa Shieh, MD, lsheih@stanford.edu

For Quality, Patient Safety & Effectiveness questions, contact Steve Chinn, DPM, MS, MBA; Administrative Director, Accreditation & Regulatory Affairs at sdchinn@stanfordhealthcare.org or (650) 723-6395

P&T Update – October 2014 (PDF)
The Stanford Hospital & Clinics Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee has added Bupivacaine liposome injection (Exparel®) to the formulary. Please click here for details.

Submit an article to medstaff@stanfordhealthcare.org