The Provider Role Tool application swaps “qualifying” signed patient orders from an original provider (who has moved on and should no longer receive associated order notifications) to a substitute provider. The reassignment ensures that the original provider won’t receive any notifications associated with the orders in question, and the substitute provider will receive those notifications. A “qualifying” signed patient order is an open order issued by the original provider during a specified timer period (default is the last calendar year).
The original case that led to NSR 20130504 was a provider who moved from VA to DOD while remaining at the same site. After the role change, the provider was no longer responsible for VA patients, and was instead responsible for DOD patients. The facility was in a “Catch-22” scenario. If they assigned a surrogate for the original provider, that surrogate received order notifications for the original provider’s VA and DOD patients. If they did not assign a surrogate, the original provider continued to receive notifications for VA patients. They needed a solution that would let the original provider move on to new duties without the burden of receiving notifications for orders issued in the abandoned VA role.
Note: Do not confuse the CPRS Surrogates functionality with the Provider Role Tool. Surrogacy sends all notifications for one provider to another. The Provider Role Tool affects only notifications for selected orders issued in a specified time period.
Because orders are critical to patient care, the Provider Role Tool uses a two-step process:
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