November Epic upgrade will add X as legal sex option for patients to match ID

Legacy’s Epic update on Nov. 12 will introduce X as a legal sex option for patients with that status on their government-issued identification.

This change better reflects our patient population, supports accuracy in medical records, and brings our system up to date with legal sex options that have been available on IDs in Oregon, Washington and elsewhere since 2017. This change also brings better visibility to individuals who are not male nor female, such as intersex individuals who make up approximately 2% of the national population and have unique medical needs.

Here are a few important things to know:

• Legal sex is a requirement in every medical record and should match legal sex on patient identification documents. Patients must have X listed as legal sex on official ID for us to mark X as their legal sex in Epic.
• Legal sex continues to be an Epic field completed by Patient Access or registration staff and is not available for patients to complete in MyHealth.
• Patients with legal sex X on their ID who don’t want this information in their medical record may have their legal sex set as “unknown” in Epic.
• With this new capability, Legacy will discontinue the practice of recording X as an FYI flag in Epic.

If you have questions, look for information on this change within Epic or email REALDSOGIreporting@lhs.org.