What is the Clinical Information System that CST will Implement?
A clinical information system is a computer system designed for collecting, storing, amending and retrieving information relevant to healthcare delivery.
In late 2015, VCH, PHSA and PHC will begin moving towards new standardized clinical practices and a shared clinical information system based on software developed by Cerner. Sites will go live over three years , in a sequence based on clinical complexity, scope of service, geographic considerations and the current technologies in place.
“CST is building an integrated electronic patient health record, with alerts and decision support built in,” explains Vicky Crompton, CST Executive Director and Transformation Lead, PHSA.
Some examples of what this means for you:
• You will have an electronic patient chart at your fingertips – no more searching for the chart or making manual updates on paper
• You can see an admitted patient’s chart when they’re still in the Emergency Department, before they have arrived on your unit
• You can quickly find information about the patient’s condition, allergies, medications and previous medical history
• You can read charts and orders on a screen instead of deciphering handwriting
• If you have admitting privileges there are mechanisms for you to place orders remotely
“The software is tailored for healthcare, and includes modules for specialty areas such as radiology, surgery, emergency, medication management, and clinical documentation,” says Vicky. “There’s a track record of successful implementations across North America. 30 to 40% of clinical settings in Canada use Cerner, including North York General Hospital and London Health Sciences Centre.”
We will take the software and localize it to meet the specific needs of our three Health Organizations. The clinical design teams are making sure that the system enables patient flow and provides the information needed by patients and clinicians. They’re working closely with the technical teams to put the pieces together in the right way.
“I’ve always believed in the importance of electronic health records and the benefits they deliver,” says Vicky. “Accurate information is critical to providing good quality and safe patient care. Our world-class healthcare professionals need to have access to the relevant information in a timely manner in order to do their best work.”
Background information
• Clinical & Systems Transformation (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, ambulatory care and residential 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, 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.
Visit CSTproject.ca for more information and regular updates, and to submit suggestions for future articles. If you have questions or feedback, please email info@CSTproject.ca or contact Kelle Payne, CST Executive Director and Transformation Lead (Joint), VCH at Kelle.Payne@vch.ca or Donna Stanton, CST Executive Director and Transformation Lead (Joint), VCH at Donna.Stanton@vch.ca.
Andrea
Will this new system take away from clinical time with patients? In community we use PARIS which is clunky and very time consuming. It is well known (amongst long-time community therapists) that the number of possible visits per day were cut in half once charting in PARIS, as opposed to paper, was implemented. Although I am new to community my fellow colleagues have stated they used to be able to do upwards of 7-8 visits/day and paper chart while at the visit. Now they seem to manage 4-5 visits/day with blocks of time needed to chart in PARIS.
Dr. Kelle Payne
Dear Andrea,
Thank you very much for your inquiry and I ask that you share this response with your colleagues as I am positive that others have similar concerns.
Point # 1: the CST Project work is not going to change what you presently do in Community with respect to the PARIS program. If you are using PARIS now ….. you will continue to use PARIS.
Point #2: The CST system should not when it is up and running take away clinical time from the patient but the way we deliver care will clearly be different. History has shown in the beginning stages (i.e.: during actual implementation and for the first several weeks thereafter) the process changes might cause some delays but the implementation plan is to bring in added resources at the sites until a sense of familiarity and comfort is achieved. Thus clincial care processes should be maintained.