“It might sound cliché, but making a genuine difference to the lives of patients was one of the main things that excited me about this role,” says Carter Williamson, an MBA student at the University of Victoria and the newest member of the CST Transformational Learning team.

Carter is one of 17 students that have taken on new roles with the Clinical & Systems Transformation project as part of the Cooperative Education program at their university. Over the next four months, the students will provide input to a variety of teams across the project.

Vicky Crompton, CST Executive Director and Transformation Lead (PHSA), is looking forward to the energy the students will bring to CST.

“As brand new faces to the three Health Organizations, they bring a fresh perspective to the project and can potentially notice things we don’t see anymore. This input really aligns with the culture of continuous learning and improvement we hope to foster.”

Like many of the students, Carter is excited about the skills and experience he will gain by being involved in the project, but he also knows that he has a steep learning curve ahead.

“Being able to develop a deep enough understanding of the processes and concepts behind the project will be challenging,” he says, already aware of the complexity involved in such a large-scale project.

Co-op student Lindsay Brookes agrees. Working with the CST HR team, she is surprised by the vast amount of people providing their input and experience to the project.

“I knew it was a big project,” she says, “But I just did not expect so many people and experts from across such a variety of areas. It’s really exciting.”

The students will play an important role at CST, but for them, it is more than just a job. It is a once-in-a-career opportunity to develop experience for a future where a variety of skills will be needed to provide safer patient care.

While Carter and Lindsay both have commerce backgrounds, the students with CST come from a wide variety of disciplines. For Marina Retseptor, CST provides an opportunity for her to combine her interest in healthcare with her studies in computer science. Andy Vuong with the Clinical Design team, is excited about the experience this role will give him towards a career in health informatics. Other students with the team come from nursing, health administration and health information science programs.

Vicky anticipates that the students will find their time on the project valuable.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to experience a dynamic, large-scale healthcare project, while working with a senior group of professionals across healthcare, including both technology and clinical areas.”
“We are excited to have them here and wish them every success during their time with us.”

Background information

• CST is a joint initiative of VCH, PHSA and PHC, and one of the largest and most complex healthcare projects in Canada. It spans across several areas of the continuum of care, including: acute care inpatient and outpatient units and ambulatory care. As well as creating consistent, leading practices, and a shared clinical information system, CST will deliver HIMSS Level 5 functionality.

• Clinical design teams, made up of hundreds of highly-skilled, multi-disciplinary professionals from across the three Health Organizations and Team IBM (experts from IBM Technical Services, Deloitte, Leidos Solution Builders, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre), started work on April 7, 2014. These teams are tasked with designing our future workflows, based on leading practices. In doing so, they are defining the requirements for our new clinical information system.

For more information, please contact Donna Stanton, CST Executive Director/Transformation Lead, VCH, donna.stanton@vch.ca.