Epic Patient ID Length with HMS

Christina, 
We use the "visit" number (CSN) which is 9 characters for us. I just checked and our EPIC patient number ("E") are only 8 characters. I guess I didn't realize they varied so much from institution to institution. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
 We currently only have our AccuCheks and EPOCs interfaced through RALs. I have been trying to get our Surgery unit to interface their HMS Plus but haven't had much luck. They feel it would take too much time, not to mention the expense of the interface. Any tips on how you got compliance on that? 

Hi Patricia. Thanks for your response. As far as interfacing our HMS through RALS, it was done years ago. Right now we are changing our EMR from Meditech to Epic, but the HMS interfacing is not new. Our POC team does the work, and the lab carries the expense, but we also get the revenue for all testing. All of our budget requests go through an approval process, and our health system believes the IT expense is worth it. Good luck!

We have our HMS interfaced to RALS as well.  It was well worth the investment just to keep track of all the lot numbers of all the different cartridges.  I also can easily follow their liquid QC and EQC for my IQCP.  They were very happy to get rid of all the manual logs that they were using.  We are very lucky that our CSN's started with 8 digits so we have a ways to go before we hit 12.