What is GRoSS?
Get Rid of the Stupid Stuff (GRoSS) is a Ballad Health initiative to improve the efficiency of our Epic electronic health system by identifying anything in Epic that is poorly designed, unnecessary or nonsensical. The best part is that you, our Epic users, get to choose the items that get evaluated by quickly and easily submitting issues as you find them. This helps us focus on the “stupid stuff” in Epic that you are dealing with the most.
How to submit
The link to submit an issue is posted in several convenient locations so you can easily submit items as you find them. It takes less than a minute to complete the form, and you can find it in the following locations:
- Epic Learning Home Dashboard: LHD Menu
- Epic Education Site: Main Menu
- Ballad Health intranet: Quick Links
- Ballad Health ServiceNow Portal: Quick Links
- Ballad Teams App: Resources Page
While some of the identifying information requested in the form may seem redundant, the fields are designed to capture essential information, based on leadership input and other successful GRoSS rollouts, to ensure your submission is as effective and impactful as possible.
The process
When you submit an issue, you will get a confirmation email that it’s been received. From there, the item will receive a categorization:
- Just do it: The team plans to implement the suggestion.
- Needs further discovery: The change is related to a more complex issue and the team is looking into the suggestion to determine if it can be implemented.
- Not possible at this time: The change can’t be made due to a regulatory requirement or high-level issue, though it will be logged and tracked to be revisited in the future.
- If an item isn’t possible due to Epic functionality, you will receive a link to submit an idea on Epic Ideas. This is a site where anyone with an Epic UserWeb account can submit an idea, which Epic developers will review these ideas and possibly implement them into the electronic health record (EHR).
- If an item is not possible for any other reason, we’ll continue to track the submission to see if we can make the change at a later time.
GRoSS, Service Request or incident?
Depending on the type of issue you encounter in Epic, you should report it to different places. Some issues don’t fit into GRoSS submissions, but we have ways to submit those problems, as well. (If a non-GRoSS request is submitted through the GRoSS submission form, depending on the request, the ticket will still move forward.) Below is a simple breakdown so you know where your request belongs:
- “I encountered something in Epic that is poorly designed, unnecessary or nonsensical”: Submit to GRoSS using the GRoSS submission form.
- “Something I need in Epic is missing, and I would like it added”: Submit a service request using the Service Request link.
- “Something in Epic used to work but is now broken and needs to be fixed”: Submit an incident report using the Service Portal.
What’s been fixed so far?
We’ve already received almost 200 submissions, and about a quarter of these requests have already been resolved! Thank you to everyone who has submitted items so far – we want to see even more, though, so we can keep improving Epic for you.
Here are a few examples of “stupid stuff” we’ve been able to resolve thanks to your submissions:
- From a respiratory therapist at Bristol Regional Medical Center: “Can we fix the redundancy in Vent flow sheets: peak pressures and peak inspiratory pressure, one right under the other?” The issue was resolved, with the redundancy removed.
- From a registered nurse at Johnson County Community Hospital: “Can we remove ‘MD attempts’ from under intermittent needle therapy placement?” The issue was resolved, with the item removed.
- From a director of ambulatory care management: “Can we move the location of medication review activity, so it takes fewer clicks to get there?” The issue was resolved, with the item moved to a more convenient location.
- From a medical lab technologist: “Can we get a column added to our packing lists for send-out specimens? We need to see where they’re going, but right now we have to open each one to see the location.” The issue was resolved, with the column added.
What people are saying about GRoSS
Bobbie Murphy, MSN RN, regional chief nursing officer – “At Ballad Health, we aim to support our team in using Epic effectively. We appreciate your feedback, and we have already seen some great suggestions. Please continue sharing your ideas to help us streamline Epic and deliver the best possible care to our patients.”
Marion Gentry, RN – “I had a patient receiving bolus tube feedings every two hours. There was an order in the computer, but I had to set reminders in the brain to remind me to do these and document them separately in the patient’s chart. The GRoSS submission process made it easy to submit a request to have this placed on the brain. This didn’t just help me; the oncoming nurses could also see that the patient had tube feedings and when they were finished. Overall, this helped improve the patient’s care.”
Amanda Tester, RN – “I was pleasantly surprised with the GRoSS submission process and the outcome! I submitted my request for removing an extra checkbox that was nonsensical; they took my suggestion, and now that flowsheet has less clutter. It was definitely worth taking the time to make the submission.”
