Test Order Properties

Beaker Order (EAP) Properties

Epic is a highly integrated system. This is especially apparent when working with procedure (EAP) records for laboratory tests.


Laboratory test EAP records are created and maintained by an application group (i.e. Beaker). However, the same records are used by other groups and the Beaker team does not lock or otherwise "own" the record content. Unfortunately, test records have different property configurations when used in different tools or contexts. For example, the "questions" associated with a microbiology sample test may be organized in one way when the test presents within a surgical navigator but in a different way when presented through an order composer workflow.


Multi-use orderables can be thought of like a book where the EAP equates to the book cover, and each application's properties as separate chapters in the book. Unfortunately, the questions, sources, types and other meta-data for the procedure can differ from chapter to chapter and changes in one section are not automatically propagated or synchronize for the whole book. Accordingly, exceptionally fastidious master editing is required.


Connect Care's rapid growth has been associated with some divergence between methods used by navigators and order composers to capture key data that must be captured with a procedure request in order to properly fulfill that request. A new resource has been developed to help designers, analysts and builders quickly recognize how test requests are presented in different contexts. This exposes the questions, or meta-data, captured in each context and, hopefully, will facilitate closer alignment.


Builders can use this resource to:

    • Find order attributes, such as source and type specifications, as entered in specific contexts (e.g., navigators) and, using these as starting points, find an order of interest and ensure that it has matching properties that will provided all needed information to laboratory order fulfillment entities.

    • Help the analysts and laboratory staff to explore current Connect Care build, find where required information and links may be missing, and ensure that break-fixes get attended to.

The Beaker EAP properties catalogue automatically pulls and refreshes information daily from Connect Care production environments.

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