Epic Skills Assessment Clinical Workflow Fundamentals 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Epic workflow component captures the reason a patient is seeking care at the start of an ambulatory visit?
- Assessment
- Chief Complaint / Reason for Visit (Correct answer)
- Review of Systems
- Problem List
Correct answer: Chief Complaint / Reason for Visit
The Chief Complaint or Reason for Visit field captures the patient's primary concern in their own words and is documented at encounter initiation.
Question 2: An inpatient nurse scans a patient's armband before administering a medication. Which Epic system validates the scan?
- Bedside Verification (eMAR barcode scanning) (Correct answer)
- CPOE order entry
- Chart Review
- ADT module
Correct answer: Bedside Verification (eMAR barcode scanning)
Bedside medication verification via eMAR barcode scanning confirms the five rights of medication administration before the dose is given.
Question 3: A provider wants to see trending values for a lab test over multiple encounters. Which Epic feature is best suited for this?
- Most Recent Results view
- Results Review with trending/graph view (Correct answer)
- In Basket result notifications
- Order Entry history
Correct answer: Results Review with trending/graph view
The Results Review activity allows providers to graph or trend lab values over time across multiple encounters to assess clinical progress.
Question 4: When a patient is registered as a 'No Information Patient' (NIP) in Epic, what restriction applies?
- The patient cannot receive medications
- Access to the patient's chart is limited to authorized staff only, hiding the admission from standard lookups (Correct answer)
- The patient's insurance is flagged as invalid
- All orders require double sign-off
Correct answer: Access to the patient's chart is limited to authorized staff only, hiding the admission from standard lookups
NIP status (also called confidential patient status) restricts chart visibility so the patient's presence and information are not disclosed to unauthorized users.
Question 5: Which Epic documentation tool allows a provider to capture a structured physical examination using pre-built templates?
- SmartPhrase
- SmartForm or Exam activity with dot phrases (Correct answer)
- Problem List
- Order Entry
Correct answer: SmartForm or Exam activity with dot phrases
SmartForms and structured exam activities with dot phrases allow providers to click through pre-built examination templates, improving consistency and speed.
Question 6: A hospitalist signs out to a night-shift colleague using Epic. Which tool is specifically designed to facilitate this handoff?
- Discharge summary
- Handoff (I-PASS or Handoff Navigator) (Correct answer)
- Secure Chat message
- MyChart patient portal
Correct answer: Handoff (I-PASS or Handoff Navigator)
Epic's Handoff activity (often built on the I-PASS framework) provides a structured, standardized format for communicating patient status during provider transitions.
Question 7: When using Epic's Care Everywhere feature, what type of data can be retrieved from external health systems?
- Only billing records
- Clinical data such as notes, labs, medications, and allergies from outside organizations (Correct answer)
- Insurance eligibility only
- Scheduling data from other Epic sites only
Correct answer: Clinical data such as notes, labs, medications, and allergies from outside organizations
Care Everywhere uses interoperability standards (HL7, FHIR, CommonWell, Carequality) to pull external clinical records into the patient's Epic chart.
Epic Skills Assessment Clinical Workflow Fundamentals 5
Which Epic workflow component captures the reason a patient is seeking care at the start of an ambulatory visit?