UNLEASHING THE POWER OF MILLENNIUM'S DISCERN EXPERT WITH CUSTOM CCL SCRIPTS
By Jacque Jacobs
When I first started building Discern Expert, D.E., alerts I disliked having to tell my requestor that it
wasn’t possible to build the alert they wanted because the current Discern Expert templates did not
have the criteria they needed for an alert such as, sub-activity type, for distinguishing between the
different types of radiology exams. Or if they were using newer Cerner functionality such as, PowerPlans,
and that there were no D.E. PowerPlan templates. But now that I have mastered the art of writing custom
CCL scripts for Discern Expert I rarely have to utter those words, “Can’t be done”.
A few of the alerts I have been able to build with Discern Expert and custom CCL scripts:
- Send an Alert Flex warning to users when a PowerPlan has been left in “planned status”
and telling them which PowerPlans have been left in this status.
- Distinguish between prescription orders and standard inpatient orders so at certain locations only
prescription orders maybe placed and blocking placement of all other CPOE orders.
- Print laboratory requisitions to the patient’s inpatient location if the requisition is
missing a WTS ordering location.
- Produce an interface file for another information system when certain INET flowsheet items have been
charted, such as blood pressure.
The power of custom CCL scripts with Discern Expert, D.E., lies, in part, in being able to access the
data stored in the different request record structures for synchronous triggers such as, sign order, add to
scratch pad or open chart. Synchronous triggers are where the data has not yet been committed to the
database so these request record structures are the only place where the data is stored. Unfortunately, D.E.
templates do not access all the data available in the synchronous request record structures but by using
a “For Loop” with the request record structure you are able to efficiently extract this data and
pass it to the alert - such as, distinguishing if a current order is a prescription.
You can also use specific D.E. variables in the custom CCL to pass additional information to the users for
the on-screen alerts like the name of the PowerPlan that has been left in “planned” status or to
create log messages that be used to trace issues or events at a later time. For the custom D.E. CCL script I
wrote for printing lab requisitions if the WTS ordering location was missing the site has been able to use the
log messages from the CCL script to trace what order locations were missing WTS printers or had forgotten
to update WTS with new replacement printer names.
Yes, it is wonderful these days to say with confidence to the requestor for a new alert, “If the
event you're interested in can be triggered by Discern Expert I can build your alert.”
If you would like additional information on this topic or other Cerner solutions, please contact us
at vcs@getvitalized.com or call our corporate offices at
610-444-1233. PowerPlan, CCL and Discern Expert are all registered Cerner Corporation products.