A Clinical Device Task Force, made up of multi-disciplinary professionals from across VCH, PHSA and PHC is set to determine the devices needed to support clinical workflows for the Clinical & Systems Transformation project.

Tanico Tan, the CST Device Team Lead, will work closely with Pamela Dawkins who recently joined the project as the Clinical Device Lead.

“We understand it is imperative our health professionals have the right devices in place to support their work and the Clinical Device Task Force will work to gather their clinical input,” says Tanico.

The task force will be responsible for determining the requirements, based on clinical workflows, for devices such as bar-code scanners, mobile workstations and medication delivery carts. Members of the task force will review and evaluate different types of devices, validate recommendations with others, and sign off on recommended devices.

“A long time ago, little to no discussion occurred before IT dropped a PC at your desk. Now, thank goodness, it’s a different world. Technical professionals now interact, work with clinical people and ask questions before devices are purchased and delivered,” says Tanico.

“We want to find out what devices will best support our health professionals and, in turn, help them to spend more time caring for patients – a goal that I find immensely satisfying.”

The CST project team will be reaching out to leaders in relevant areas, at facilities across VCH, PHSA and PHC, within the next two weeks to identify people with the right knowledge for the Task Force. If you think you can make a valuable contribution to this team, please inform your manager. The work of the Clinical Device Task Force will begin in September.

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, Executive Director, Transformation Lead (joint) at Kelle.Payne@vch.ca and Donna Stanton, Executive Director, Transformation Lead (joint) at Donna.Stanton@vch.ca