1. Lesson One: Introduction to PowerChart
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Understand what PowerChart is
Describe benefits and features of using PowerChart

2. Terms
To begin, let’s discuss some terms that you should become familiar with:
Electronic Medical Record
Epic
PowerChart
Downtime
Security

3. Electronic Medical Record
An Electronic Medical Record [EMR] is a computerized version of a patient’s physical chart. Data such as orders, results, radiology images, and notes can be stored in an EMR.

4. Epic is CHKDHS’s Physician Practice Management system
Epic is CHKDHS’s Physician Practice Management system. This system manages registration, billing, and appointment functions.

5. When a patient is registered, the EMR is created.
As orders are placed for the patient, or as the need arises to look up patient information, we can now access PowerChart.
PowerChart provides capability to view visit information, view results, enter orders and medications, create visit notes, etc.
PowerChart is a flexible tool because it interacts with other applications, such as SurgiNet, FirstNet, Eclipsys, and Epic. It can see inpatient and outpatient data.

6. Epic-Eclipsys-PowerChart Interface
Epic is CHKDHS’s Physician Practice Management system and is used for physician office and some outpatient hospital registrations, appointments, and billing transactions.
Eclipsys is CHKD’s Inpatient Management system and is used to maintain admission, discharge, and transfer transactions. This includes Radiology, Laboratory, etc.
A patient must be previously registered or admitted via Eclipsys or Epic in order to generate an Electronic Medical Record in PowerChart.
Patients for whom no Eclipsys or Epic records have been created will not be available from within PowerChart.

7. Some Benefits of using PowerChart include:
Real time clinical information
Easy access to patient’s chart
Quickly accessible historical results
Customizable views

8. Security in PowerChart
Your username and password make up your electronic signature. As you access records in our systems, you are identified by your username and password. Security ensures that patient information remains confidential by tracking your interactions with patient records.

9. Downtime
Occasionally, downtime will occur with our applications. Downtime is any period of system unavailability.
Scheduled downtime occurs for routine system maintenance.
Unscheduled downtime occurs for cases when unplanned changes need to occur.
When downtime occurs, consult with your practice manager or education coordinator for correct downtime procedures.