Frequently Asked Questions:
Beaker and Clinical Research
1.
What is Beaker?
Beaker is the module in Epic that handles all laboratory activities. It replaces Cerner
Millennium in the South (Memorial Hospital) and Central (Anschutz) regions, and
Meditech in the North (PVHS, Medical Center of the Rockies).
2.
I’ve heard that all studies will now require a ‘Beaker build’. What is this?
All studies are set up in Beaker from the time they are activated in Epic. Studies will
only require a ‘Beaker build’—a process that requires that a requisition be created in
Beaker—if they 1) request that the UCH Clinical Laboratory process and ship study
samples to a central lab; and/or 2) request that the UCH Clinical Laboratory run
samples obtained from patients outside of the UCH system. These services fall under
the realm of ‘reference lab billing’ (RLB) and thus require an additional step for the lab
to prepare the proper billing and processing details.
3.
Which locations are considered ‘outside’ the UCH system?
Separate legal entities that are not part of the UCH system include the VA, Children’s
Hospital of Colorado, National Jewish, Barbara Davis Center, Denver Health, and
various CU clinics. Currently, the OB Gyn department at Lowry is also considered
‘outside’ since their clinic is not able to create a hospital account record (HAR) on
which charges are usually dropped when within the health system.
4.
What is the turnaround time to have my study set up with the requisition to
either process and ship my samples or process my samples obtained from
outside sources?
Currently, the turnaround time is 2 weeks to have a study set up with the clinical
laboratory. This is due to the time it takes to create a requisition in Beaker and the
limited human resources available to process the initial requests. As such, it is highly
advised that the lab is notified at the study start to avoid any delays.
5.
Will research personnel have access to Beaker?
Given the utility of Beaker to facilitate all aspect of sample handling (collection,
processing, resulting), research personnel will not have direct access to Beaker.
However, all users do have view-only access to Beaker, in that the lab results contained
in the Labs section of a patient’s chart are populated from Beaker.
6.
What are the allowable access levels for research personnel?
Access to laboratory activities will largely remain the same for each user. For example,
research staff that work directly with patients will have the same view-only access as
they did prior to Beaker implementation. In contrast, research staff who work in the
laboratory processing research samples will have the ability to enter results into Epic,
among other processing-specific functionalities.
7.
My study uses an outside lab to process samples. I would like to enter the
resulting lab values into Epic. Can I do this?
Research personnel, except for those who work in the lab, will only have view-only
access when reviewing laboratory values. Entering test values (a.k.a. ‘resulting’) will
be relegated to laboratory personnel only. In addition, labs that have been processed
and resulted by a central lab for research purposes cannot be entered into Epic.
8.
Who do I contact with any questions regarding Beaker?
Any questions regarding Beaker can be directed to Research Support Services and
Allan Roem, Administrative Coordinator in the UCH Clinical Laboratory