Vanderbilt University Medical Center is rolling out a new electronic tool to facilitate the documentation of every patient’s home medications. Called the Med List Tool, this new part of the electronic medical record is a way for providers of all disciplines to accurately collect, record and communicate the medications a patient takes.

An initiative is afoot to document each patient’s anticipated date of discharge in StarPanel (the electronic medical record system) upon admission to Vanderbilt University Hospital, then update it daily and remind patients of it daily.

On Jan. 15, an information systems glitch rendered Vanderbilt Outpatient Orders Management, or VOOM, temporarily unavailable for some users. Shubhada Jagasia, M.D., MMHC, medical director of the Eskind Diabetes Clinic, was among clinicians who suddenly had to return to using paper forms to order clinical labs, radiology and other diagnostic tests.

Within StarPanel, the medical records system used at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, patient care team members each have an electronic message “basket,” making it simple to store messages and link them to medical records.

The less time nurses and staff spend documenting their work in the medical record, the more time they can spend with patients.