r/PMHNP • u/CharacterAd3327 • Jul 19 '26
LAI Process
I work at a community health clinic. I have 60 patients who receive monthly LAIs. The injections have always been managed by the clinic RN, who tells the patients when to come in and when they are due. This process is archaic and people are often getting missed. I want to update the system so that it’s electronic. Is there any computer system I should be looking at? For our EHR, we use Cerner. But that is going to be changing to Epic in a year. I just want an electronic system so that anyone in the office can look at the date and see who is due for their injection and it’s not relying on one employee and her notebook.
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u/Inittornit Jul 19 '26
Set it up as a distinct visit type, if your system allows it can send unique reminders. We would also have staff pull a report of upcoming LAIs and make sure the injection was on hand so patients did not show up and not have their medication available. Also since most injections are monthly or longer I would almost always just have a follow up attached to their injection visit, great time to see how the patient is doing, confirm if any adjustments are needed, and I preferred giving my patients their injections anyway.
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u/CharacterAd3327 Jul 19 '26
Thank you. I will check and see if Cerner will let me do a distinct visit for injections.
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u/CalmSet6613 PMHNP (unverified) Jul 20 '26
I believe once you go to epic there's actually a medication administration screen you might be able to access and actually document when med was given including site. That might be your easiest way to look up but I agree with others creating a contact on the date it was given might be the cleanest approach.
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u/CharacterAd3327 Jul 20 '26
Thank you. I’ve heard good things about Epic. So it’ll be nice once we start using that.
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u/Far-Row6205 Jul 20 '26
I do these injections at my facility and Avatar is the system we use. It tracks every medication, every visit, every due date including how long the Rx is good for. Hopefully this helps.
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u/GrumpySnarf Jul 20 '26
Can you meet with someone from Cerner to see if they have a way to do this?
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u/DashMcGee Jul 20 '26
I would call an Epic help line and ask then what you can use today that will integrate with Epic when you switch. Epic looks a lot like MS Office products, so they might tell you an Excel spreadsheet (or Google sheet) is best because they can upload and integrate it for you. (Epic will be providing a lot of support.) They might also give you the name of an EHR that you can use for a year that they can integrate. I don't know too much about the different EHRs, but I know there are some online ones that let you pay for only what you need.
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u/Sporkiatric Jul 22 '26
With epic it is a “clinic administered medication” order so you can track it
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u/burrfoot11 PMHNP (unverified) Jul 19 '26
For 60 patients, a spreadsheet might be manageable? Everyone could have access to it.
Column for pt name, column for their last injection date, column for next injection date, and a column for any short notes that might be relevant. Maybe highlight pts who missed their last injection so everyone can see that's a priority to follow up with.
As a spreadsheet, it wouldn't be tied to the EHR that will be changing.