Stephen J. Rosenfeld, M.D., M.B.A.
Chief Information Officer
Associate Director for Clinical Research Information Systems
Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health

01/19/2006

CRIS Users:

The CRIS system will be down from Friday, January 20th at 23:59 (midnight), until Saturday, January 21st at approximately 20:00 (8 pm), for an upgrade to the system.  This is a MAJOR change - please be extra vigilant for system problems when the system is turned back on and call the CRIS help desk at 301-496-8400 if you have questions or concerns. I've attached a reference sheet on how to perform some common tasks during the time the system is down. Also, please note the following:

• If you use custom patient lists (any list beginning with an *) you can add yourself as a care provider so that the list can be easily recreated (custom patient lists will be erased during this system upgrade).  Instructions for ‘Add Me’ can be found on the CRIS website at http://cris.cc.nih.gov/
  
  
• Prescribers should enter all new and anticipated orders (specifically Pass, Take Home Meds and Chemotherapy Orders) into the CRIS system prior to the downtime.
  
  
• Overhead announcements will be made prior to the downtime and periodically during the time the system is unavailable as well as when it is operational again.
  
  
• You must log out of CRIS prior to the downtime or your work will be lost.
  
  
• Downtime procedures and forms will be used while the CRIS system is unavailable.  Forms can be found on all patient care units.
  
  
• When CRIS is operational, Prescribers and registered nurses will be required to enter all written, verbal and telephone orders into CRIS, except lab orders as they will be entered by DLM.
  
  
• Refer to your departmental downtime procedures for additional instructions.
  
  
• Refuse to Sign: In this new version of CRIS, Prescribers will be able to “Refuse” to sign an order. There is a button on the bottom of the Signature Manager sign-off screen that allows for this. When this button is clicked, a mandatory field displays and you must enter a reason for refusal. The choices are: Incorrect Order, Incorrect Patient, and Incorrect Provider. Monitoring of orders that have had signatures refused will be performed by the Medical Records department.
  
  
• Acknowledging and Acting on Alerts: When acknowledging and viewing multiple alerts, users must click on the “Next” button in order to document that they have acknowledged and viewed each alert. Once the last alert detail has been acknowledged and viewed the ‘Proceed’ button then becomes active. Click on the ‘Proceed’ button, to continue with the ordering process.
  
  
• For problems or questions contact CRIS support at 496-8400

Click on the image for a PDF version of this CRIS Downtime Guide