Get Ready for the November Epic Upgrade, Including New Patient Deterioration Index

Our next Epic upgrade is Wednesday, Nov. 11, and education will be available 2 weeks before the upgrade. Epic's "What's New" feature shows you what's changing specifically for you. It provides recommended education based on your actual usage of Epic, ensuring you see the most relevant updates for your role and workflows. Watch the video above to learn more about it.

With the November upgrade, we will introduce the Epic Deterioration Index, a tool designed to help care teams identify patients at increased risk for clinical deterioration.

The Deterioration Index continuously analyzes information documented in the patient’s chart to estimate the risk of clinical deterioration, including the likelihood of mortality, transfer to the ICU, a rapid response team call, or a code. It is designed to support, not replace, clinical judgment and should always be used alongside clinical assessment and other patient information.

Key Dates 

• Wednesday, Oct. 28: "What's New" feature is available from your Epic home screen by clicking the megaphone icon
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: Epic upgrade date
• Wednesday, Dec. 9: The last day the "What's New" content will be available

About the Deterioration Index

The Deterioration Index will be available for patients 18 years and older who are admitted as inpatients or observation patients, including patients in the ED, women’s health, and behavioral health. A score is generated every 15 minutes based on information in the patient’s chart, including demographics, vital signs, lab results, and nursing assessments.

Understanding the Score

Patients are classified into three risk levels:

• Low: Less than 34 (green)
• Medium: 34 to less than 70 (yellow)
• High: 70 or higher (red)

When a patient reaches the high-risk range, nurses will receive an Our Practice Advisory and clinical administrators will receive an In Basket message to support timely review, assessment, and intervention when appropriate.

Where to Find the Deterioration Index in Epic

Clinicians can view the Deterioration Index in several areas of Epic, including Patient Lists, Patient List reports, Storyboard, Summary Reports, the Brain and on the ED Observation Track Board. Historical scores and additional model details are also available to help clinicians understand changes in a patient's risk over time.

Learn More About the Deterioration Index

• Epic Help: Access Deterioration Index job aids for providers, nurses, and clinical administrators for guidance on viewing scores and responding to alerts.
• Epic Earth: Search “Deterioration” in Epic Earth to learn more about the model, including score calculations, contributing variables, model development, and methodology.

How to See What's New for YOU in Epic

Epic's "What's New" feature shows you what's changing specifically for you. It provides recommended education based on your actual usage of Epic, ensuring you see the most relevant updates for your role and workflows. Watch the video above to learn more about it.

Two weeks before the upgrade—which is Wednesday, Oct. 28 for the Nov. 11 upgrade—you'll see a notification in your home workspace. Click Learn More to review What’s New. Or, if now’s not a good time, choose one of the options at the bottom of the notification. If you’re in the middle of something, you can also ignore the notification until you have more time to review it. Below is an example of a What's New notification.

If you want to find the notification again, click the megaphone icon on your home workspace, or search in the assistant bar using a keyword like "what's new" or "upgrade."

Key Changes: What's New is designed to take just a few minutes of your time. Focus on the Key Changes (marked A in the example below) to learn about the features that will make the biggest difference in your upgrade experience. Click an entry to get more detail such as screenshots, tip sheets, or videos.

Other Changes: If you want to preview smaller changes you might notice, you can browse by workflow in the Other Changes section (marked B in the example above).

Explore by Role: You can also explore changes by role. If you haven't used the system for long or you've been on leave, this is the first page you'll see. Otherwise, you can click See changes by role to check out this view—for example, maybe you want to see what's new for other roles you work with, or maybe you want to preview tools you don't use yet but might be interested in.

Note that users in the same role or department may see different topics based on their actual use of Epic, so don’t worry if your colleagues’ content looks different—this is intentional and not a system error.

Education and Organizational Development Support

Epic trainers will offer support throughout the upgrade, including:

• Emailing Epic Update documents to leaders on Wednesday, Oct. 28
• Posting updates on Learning Home Dashboards in Epic
• Linking the What’s New screen to the main Learning Home Dashboard
• Rounding in departments before and during go-live for in-person support

Questions? Contact your E&OD Epic trainer for further assistance.