Question: How can a prescriber place an order for a Diagnostic Imaging (DI) procedure not in the host facility's inpatient order catalogue?
Context: Inpatients at some facilities may require urgent or semi-urgent DI interventions that are not available at the patient’s current facility. The patient needs to be sent to another facility using a “Leave of Absence for Procedure” workflow.
However, the intended procedure is (by definition) not available at the host facility and so will not appear on the facility inpatient order list. How is the prescriber to enter an order for an external procedure at another facility?
Answer: When a DI intervention must be performed at a separate facility, the relevant order must be placed using the “External Orders” tab within the inpatient “Orders” activity. External Orders gives access to the outpatient order catalogue. This is important to appreciate because the ordering process may include wording more familiar in an outpatient context. The associated order composer has provisions for both destination facilities that use and do not use Connect Care: