Epic Skills Assessment System & Workflow Analysis Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An oncology pharmacist requests a custom report from the EHR listing all patients who received a specific high-cost chemotherapy drug in the last month. When gathering requirements, which of the following questions should the analyst ask FIRST to understand the core need?
- What file format do you need for the report, like Excel or PDF?
- How soon do you need this report completed?
- What business problem are you trying to solve, or what decision will this report help you make? (Correct answer)
- What specific data fields, such as MRN and patient name, should be included?
Correct answer: What business problem are you trying to solve, or what decision will this report help you make?
It is crucial to first understand the 'why' behind a request. The answer to this question determines the report's necessary content, format, and urgency. Jumping to implementation details like format or fields without knowing the purpose can lead to building a report that doesn't actually meet the user's underlying needs.
Question 2: During a workflow observation session, an analyst notes that nurses on a busy surgical floor are documenting patient vitals on paper and then entering them into the EHR at the end of their shift. This double entry is causing delays and occasional data entry errors. Which of the following solutions would most directly address the ROOT CAUSE of this inefficiency?
- Retraining the nurses on the importance of timely data entry.
- Implementing workstations on wheels (WOWs) or bedside terminals for direct EHR entry. (Correct answer)
- Creating a new report to identify nurses with the longest documentation delays.
- Adding a mandatory field to the EHR to force immediate entry.
Correct answer: Implementing workstations on wheels (WOWs) or bedside terminals for direct EHR entry.
The root cause of the inefficiency is a lack of accessible tools at the point of care. Providing computers at the bedside or on wheels eliminates the need for paper documentation by allowing nurses to enter data directly into the EHR in real-time. This removes the inefficient and error-prone double-entry step entirely.
Question 3: A hospital's central EHR needs to receive immunization data from a state-run registry. The analyst is told the systems will exchange data using the HL7 (Health Level Seven) standard. During the analysis phase, what is the analyst's PRIMARY responsibility regarding the HL7 interface?
- To map the data fields from the state registry's HL7 message to the corresponding fields in the EHR. (Correct answer)
- To write the programming code for the interface.
- To configure the network firewall to allow traffic between the two systems.
- To train the end-users on how to manually look up the immunization data.
Correct answer: To map the data fields from the state registry's HL7 message to the corresponding fields in the EHR.
An interface analyst's key role is to define the 'translation' rules. They must analyze the data fields in the source system's message and map them to the correct fields in the target system to ensure data flows accurately. The other tasks belong to developers, network engineers, or trainers.
Question 4: A workflow analyst is creating a process map for a patient's journey from check-in to discharge. To clearly delineate which tasks are performed by the registration staff, nurses, and physicians, which type of diagram would be MOST effective?
- Gantt Chart
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
- Pie Chart
- Swimlane (Cross-functional) Diagram (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Swimlane (Cross-functional) Diagram
A swimlane diagram is specifically designed to illustrate how a process moves across different departments, roles, or functional areas. Each 'lane' represents a different group, making it easy to see who is responsible for each step in the workflow.
Question 5: A clinic manager reports that patient satisfaction scores for 'ease of scheduling an appointment' have dropped significantly. Which of the following is the most appropriate INITIAL step for a systems analyst to take?
- Immediately propose a new scheduling software solution to leadership.
- Build a complex report analyzing call volume data from the last two years.
- Interview the scheduling staff and observe their current process and challenges. (Correct answer)
- Send a new, more detailed survey to all patients.
Correct answer: Interview the scheduling staff and observe their current process and challenges.
Before proposing solutions or performing deep data analysis, the analyst must first understand the current state. Interviewing the frontline staff who perform the scheduling workflow is the most direct way to gather qualitative data about the process, identify pain points, and form hypotheses about why satisfaction has declined.
Question 6: When evaluating a proposed change to a clinical workflow, an analyst uses the 'Current State vs. Future State' analysis method. What is the primary goal of this activity?
- To calculate the return on investment (ROI) for the project.
- To identify the specific gaps and differences between the existing process and the proposed new process. (Correct answer)
- To assign project tasks to the development team members.
- To document the technical specifications of the system hardware.
Correct answer: To identify the specific gaps and differences between the existing process and the proposed new process.
'Current State vs. Future State' analysis involves mapping out the existing workflow and the desired new workflow. The main purpose is to clearly visualize the differences, identify steps that will be eliminated or added, and understand the full scope of the change. This 'gap analysis' is foundational to planning the project.
