February 14, 2007 - Fast-Tracking On The Electronic Highway
Patients at St. Francis Memorial Hospital can now benefit from a new fast-track link on the electronic highway between hospitals in the Champlain LHIN.
“It’s the first step toward an integrated regional health record,” explains CEO Randy Penney. “Imagine what this will mean for our patients in the future – you could have a cardiology consultation in Ottawa on Friday and we would be able to see the results and plan the continuation of care on Monday with no waits or disruptions… if you went to Ottawa for a CT scan or an MRI, our practitioners would be able to access the results online and immediately provide the appropriate care.” Penney further notes, “For patients who arrive in our emergency who have been in Ottawa, we can now pull up test results which will truly enhance the information available to our physicians and nurses.”
EMPI’s focus has been on developing the unique patient identifiers necessary to ensure that records from various facilities will be cross-referenced without either duplication or gaps. At this point, fourteen hospitals in Eastern Ontario are operating the EMPI system, allowing professionals to track the health care of their patients, wherever it is provided.
“It’s very exciting,” says Penney. “The region as a whole has shown a commitment to health care by participating in this project.”
Penney took a leading role in embracing the new technology, as both a past member of the e-health council at the provincial level and a member of the Capital Health Information Technology Executive Committee.
The new electronic patient records will provide benefits to the increased efficiencies in information-sharing. Security is also enhanced in the EMPI system, which tracks any access to the password-protected health records, telling administrators who has opened the files and which information they are accessing.
“St. Francis benefited greatly from the partnership with Renfrew Victoria Hospital as that facility was one of the first sites chosen for the initial EMPI pilot project one year ago,” explains Director of Operations, Darlene Sernoskie. “This put RVH at the leading edge of the newest developments in health care communications and being able to tap into that knowledge and experience here at St. Francis has been invaluable for us.”
“The SFMH implementation was unique from the previous sites in that when SFMH joined the Regional EMPI, they also automatically joined the provincial Client Registry (Provincial EMPI) which involved a two tier EMPI rollout”, explained Peter Payton, director of information technology at RVH and SFMH. Payton also notes that the project required a commitment from a variety of staff at the hospital, including health professionals and the administrative staff in admitting and medical records.
“It’s a big undertaking for a facility our size,” he says, adding, “This is a first step toward a very exciting future, the possibilities are endless as to what information can be shared.”
Manager of Health Records, Maxine Smaglinskie and admitting staff Brenda Stamplecoski go online to show the new EMPI system to MVDHS co-op student Nicole McAfee |
