CMS has mandated that ordering physicians consult Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) prior to referring Medicare patients for advanced diagnostic imaging (CT, MR and PET/Nuclear Medicine studies). A Clinical Decision Support tool (CDS) is integrated in Epic and generates Best Practice Alerts (BPA) when an indication/diagnosis is chosen for a given test. The decision support tool assists ordering providers in making the most appropriate decisions for imaging based on a patient's specific clinical condition using ACU. Appropriateness is displayed in number and color:

Statuses will appear by priority from top to bottom. Only one status will display at a time.

Please refer to the following tip sheets for specifics on these features: