Need ENGQUE Alerts and IMPROVED IMS Dashboard

Unfortunately, we have FREQUENT issues where our interfaces completely stop. When this happens, there is ZERO information provided on the IMS Dashboard to identify that there is a problem. We have to open a ticket and inevitably hear that our ENGQUE is backed up by thousands of records. Sometimes it takes HOURS once the problem is fixed for everything to get caught back up real time. While we are waiting, we have zero visibliity of the progress because we can not see the ENGQUE. During this time, our Emergency Departments get backed up, no orders cross to Radiology or Lab, nothing goes to PACS, Results aren't transmitted for patients. Patient care is compromised. We need: 1) complete visibility to the ENGQUE 2) An alert system to notify us when the ENGQUE reached a defined number of messages for both the SITE AND the CPSI interface team. That way someone could intervene before it grinds our 2 hospitals to a halt. Ticket 10174515 states no ENGQUE alerts are available.

SAFER Recommended Practice for System Interfaces standard 2.4 The operational status of the system interface is clear to its users with regard to clinical use, such as knowing when the interface cannot transmit or receive messages, alerts, or crucial information.

Rationale for Practice or Risk Assessment

Users must be notified when the interface between clinical systems is not functioning properly. Failure to distinguish between “there are no results” and “the interface to the system containing the results is not functioning” could lead to diagnostic or therapeutic delays.

Examples of Potentially Useful Practices/Scenarios

▪ The user is informed when the interface cannot transmit a message.

▪ EHR applications that depend on system interfaces should report the interface status when in use (e.g., while reviewing imaging studies, the EHR shows the last update time or current connection with the PACS system).