Join us for a Pediatric Nursing Update Virtual Conference to learn about “COVID-19: Challenges and Guidance.” The half-day conference will be held on Jan. 29, 2021 and is open to nurses and allied health professionals who care for children with special healthcare needs in school, primary care, public health and other ambulatory care settings. Register by Jan. 26 using this registration link or by contacting outreacheducation@seattlechildrens.org.
Course objectives:
- Employ infectious disease updates to provide up-to-date clinical care for patients with coronavirus.
- Examine the effects of coronavirus on the care of pediatric patients.
- Recognize disparity and health equity issues on children and families due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in our region and nationally, Seattle Children’s needs to return to more strict guidelines regarding visitors in order to protect the health and safety of our patients, families and workforce.
Patients in both our inpatient and ambulatory setting will only be allowed a single caregiver effective Monday, Nov. 30.
Inpatient care visitor policy update:
- All families may identify two caregivers for their child’s inpatient stay.
- Only one caregiver may be at the bedside at a time.
- The two caregivers will remain the primary caregivers for the entirety of the hospitalization.
- The following exceptions will continue to apply:
- Caregivers of patients at the end of life may request an exception
- Patients whose caregivers are receiving discharge teaching
- Siblings who are younger than 12 months of age and who are breastfeeding may remain in a room with the breast-feeding parent if the patient is in standard precautions
Note: Pre-admission visitor exception requests should only be made during the 48-hour pre-procedure call, and only when truly exceptional circumstances exist. If truly exceptional circumstances are identified, direct patient families to request the exception during the 48-hour pre-procedure call, but be clear that their request may not be approved.
We will communicate these changes to patients and families on Monday, Nov. 30. Families will have 72 hours to create a plan to transition to a single caregiver in the hospital/at the bedside.
We must continue evaluating and adjusting our practices to maintain the safety of our patients, families and workforce throughout this rapidly changing pandemic. The visitor policy is subject to change quickly if the pandemic continues to worsen and if statewide restrictions are enacted.
COVID-19 Testing Update as of Nov. 25 at Noon
- Patients tested to date: 18,284. Positive (detected plus inconclusive): 346. Four patients are in the hospital; others are recovering at home.
- Workforce members tested to date: 2,846. Positive (detected plus inconclusive): 98.
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Seattle Children’s is providing influenza vaccinations to inpatients and outpatients during their scheduled visits. Seattle Children’s is also offering the vaccination to Emergency Department and Urgent Care patients. All vaccinations given to patients are documented in the Child Profile Immunization Registry. Patients are screened for eligibility.
We are also offering flu shot vouchers to patients’ family members and household contacts age 3 and older during patient visits and stays. The vouchers can be used at any Bartell Drugs with no out-of-pocket cost (Bartell will bill family members’ insurance, if available, and charge any remaining balance to Seattle Children’s). Family members and household contacts 6 months to 35 months old will need to get their flu vaccine at their primary care provider’s office. Read full post »
If your patient visited Seattle Children’s between August 17 and October 3, their patient information – including labs, notes and other results – will not be visible in Epic until December 18. This includes patients who visited Seattle Children’s prior to August 17 but whose lab or other test results were not resulted until the above timeframe.
Please use PHIN to view patient information for that period. Use your previous PHIN username/password, not your new EpicCare Link username/password. PHIN will be accessible for this purpose until December 31, 2020.
- If you need help accessing patient information quickly, or if you don’t have a PHIN or EpicCare Link account to access patient information, please call our Health Information Management office at 206-987-2173 for assistance. The Health Information Management office is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Outside of business hours, if it is urgent, please call the Seattle Children’s operator at 206-987-2000 to be routed to the appropriate department.
- If you need help accessing or using EpicCare Link, visit our Technical Support page or call our EpicCare Link Help Desk at 206-987-4444. The helpline is open 24/7.
Referral Backlog update: The backlog in referrals we experienced after our transition to Epic in October has been eliminated. We are no longer advising providers to directly call the Clinical Intake Nurse Line when sending in an urgent referral.
Thank you for your continued patience and partnership as we transition to Epic.
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A technical issue in our recent transition to Epic resulted in faxes not being sent from our Emergency Department to PCPs after their patients were seen in our ED, from Oct. 3 to Oct. 20. We have resolved the problem and apologize for any difficulties it caused for you, your patients or your practice.
If you would like to receive a list of your patients who were seen in our ED between Oct. 3 and Oct. 20, please email us at physician.relations@seattlechildrens.org. Although ED reports were not faxed out during this period, they were placed in patients’ charts and you can access them through EpicCare Link.
If you experience any problems with EpicCare Link or have questions about it, please call our EpicCare Link help desk at 206-987-4444, which is available 24/7.
Again, thank you for your patience and understanding as we make the transition to Epic.
Seattle Children’s EpicCare Link provider help line, 206-987-4444, is available to answer your questions and/or help resolve technical issues. We are pleased to announce beginning Thursday, October 22 at 4:30 p.m. the line will be available 24/7. You may also visit our Getting Started and Technical Support web pages for basic information, or email your questions to EpicCareLink@seattlechildrens.org which is monitored during standard business hours.
Seattle Children’s transitioned to EpicCare Link in early October. It allows providers to access patients’ clinical information at Seattle Children’s and submit referrals (faxed referrals are still accepted). For more information about EpicCare Link, visit here.
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We have been experiencing a referral backlog since early October due to our transition to EpicCare Link. If you have an urgent referral please send it in the usual way and then call our Clinical Intake Coordinators directly at 206-987-2080, option 2. We will be able to quickly pull your referral from the top of the referral queue to expedite the referral process.
We will let you know as soon as we have resolved the issue. Thank you for your continued understanding.
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Wednesday, Oct. 14 – Seattle Children’s is experiencing a temporary referral backlog related to our transition on Oct. 3 to Epic. We will let you know when this issue is resolved.
In the meantime, if you have an urgent referral please send it in the usual way and then call our Clinical Intake Coordinators directly at 206-987-2080, option 2. We will be able to quickly pull your referral from the top of the referral queue to expedite the referral process.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we adjust to our new workflows with Epic.
If you have EpicCare Link specific questions, please contact the help desk at 206-987-4444 or EpicCareLink@seattlechildrens.org.
As always, if you would like to contact our Physician Relations team, please email us at physician.relations@seattlechildrens.org.
On Saturday, Oct. 3, Seattle Children’s transitioned to using the Epic electronic medical record system (EMR). PHIN and eReferral are no longer in use.
Patient health information is now available to community providers via the web-based application EpicCare Link. Providers may also use EpicCare Link to submit referrals to Seattle Children’s, although faxed referrals will still be accepted.
Previous users of PHIN and eReferral should have received their new log-in credentials for EpicCare Link in September. If you did not, please contact us at physician.relations@seattlechildrens.org.
If you are a Seattle Children’s Care Network (SCCN) user, nothing has changed in how you access your patients’ medical records; please continue to log in to EpicCare Link as usual through the Okta portal. Likewise, any provider with a Seattle Children’s badge ID should access EpicCare Link through Okta. Read full post »
