2020-07-28

Save the Date(s)... Clinical Inquiry Clinics

A big thanks to Connect Care clinicians who answered a recent Clinical Inquiry Survey by submitting diverse use cases where reporting, visualization and dashboard tools could serve clinical improvement.

Supplementing expanded Reporting Training opportunities, we start an ongoing series of Connect Care "Inquiry Clinics" this fall.

Weekly noon-hour sessions will be repeated to accommodate clinician schedules. Each session starts with a user need or use case. Current in-system tools will be used to address the inquiry need. Participants are then invited to apply learnings to their own practice or group. Physician Manual supplements and tip sheets support experiential learning.

Anyone interested in helping with the clinics, or submitting new cases, can get in touch with cmio@ahs.ca.

2020-07-27

Time to Learn more about Connect Care Inquiry Supports

Connect Care is, at its core, about inquiry, investigation and improvement. We participate in inquiry when asking questions about what we do, perform investigation when using systematic approaches to answering questions, and promote improvement when iteratively applying answers to doing better.

The clinical information system (CIS) offers diverse tools for clinicians, quality advocates and researchers. These help understand how the CIS is used and how health processes and outcomes change for CIS stakeholders.

Now more than 6 months post launch, the data supporting Connect Care reports has improved in both quality and quantity. The time is right to learn about inquiry support tools; better yet, to tool-up for clinical improvement!

Weekly reporting training eLearning courses are available for the next many months. These offer a great way for clinicians and managers to learning about inquiry support and to gain proficiency using tools for improvement.

2020-07-26

Connect Care Clinical Inquiry Newsletter - July 2020

The Connect Care Clinical Inquiry Newsletter offers a quick way to catch up on the latest progress with inquiry, research and analytics supports in the clinical information system.

Check out the July 2020 edition, emphasizing new functions for researchers and annual expert meeting developments.

2020-07-25

Using Connect Care Inclusively

We've previously posted about how the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS) is designed to support inclusive and respectful care for all Albertans.

To support Connect Care users in providing culturally competent care and services, a new eLearning has been developed, Epic - GEN120 Documenting Gender, Sex, and Sexual Orientation, for all users (existing and new) who work with or talk about patients/clients. The eLearning is available for self-registration by users in MyLearningLink (MLL). This eLearning is is highly recommended for all users, expressing our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

2020-07-16

Patient Movement Bootcamp - Lunch Hour Sessions for Connect Care Users

Patient Movement Bootcamp is a series of 4 lunchtime up-skilling sessions intended to review patient movement functionality and reinforce optimal workflows. The sessions are for current Connect Care users whose role involves admissions, transfers, discharges and surgical and critical care transitions. This includes physicians, nurses, unit clerks, bed planners, transporters, patient registration staff, quality management and others.

Dr. Alan Sobey, Physician Design Lead with the CMIO, contributes to the Interfacility Transfers session on Wednesday.

Session Details

Offered virtually (Skype for Business), as well as in person (with appropriate social distancing; limited seats available in Bernard Snell Hall). Participants are encouraged attend all sessions, as each new topic builds on the previous presentation.

Monday July 20 12:00-13:00 - Foundations and Workflow Review

  • Understanding and using ADT orders
  • Unit Manager – Advanced functionality and workflow review
  • Transfer patient to new unit. – workflow review
  • Accessing patient information and avoiding chart locking
  • Patient movement guide

Tuesday July 21 12:00-13:00  - All Things Transporters 

  • Requesting Transport
  • Understanding transporter events
  • Transport to and from the OR
  • Future queue and missed requests

Wednesday July 22 12:00-13:00 – Interfacility Transfers

  • Encounters review
  • Leave of Absence (LOA) – Review
  • Interfacility transfer vs. Leave Of Absence
  • Sending to Continuing Care
  • IFT for procedure and back (IFT with LOA)
  • Physician navigators and Medication Reconciliations

Thursday July 23 12:00-13:00 - Event Management and Troubleshooting 

  • Introduction to Event Management
  • Reading The encounter events report
  • Using Event Management to troubleshoot patient movement
  • Using Reporting tools to dig deeper into patient movement issues
To register, email kent.tetz@ahs.ca

Referrals Evolution – Lunch Sessions

The Connect Care Patient Access team is offering 3 noon hour sessions about clinical referral workflows and how these are facilitated by clinical information system (CIS) tools. Although of interest to all practitioners, clinicians and support staff responsible for referral management (referral, triage, scheduling, fulfillment and follow-up) can benefit from tips about efficient and effective referral workflows.

To join one or more sessions, use the registration link(s) below (opens a calendar invitation).

July 21, 2020, 1200-1300 – Referrals Overview

  • New to referrals or simply want a review? This session will outline the steps in CIS-facilitated referral management.

July 22, 2020, 1200-1300 – Referrals Tips and Tricks

  • Pointers to using referral tools to best advantage.  

July 23, 2020; 1200-1300 – Referrals Q&A

  • Specific referral questions? Please sign-up and submit your question(s) in advance by email to Patient Access (see below).
More information:

2020-07-13

Connect Care Post-Launch Survey – let your voice be heard

The second Connect Care post-launch survey for Wave 1 sites will be available July 13 to August 7. The survey takes no more than 10 minutes to complete (there are 17 questions, mostly asking you rate the degree to which you agree with a statement), and will ask you to measure how Connect Care has influenced your daily work and your ability to provide patient care. By completing the survey, you will help us to identify possible inefficiencies, work arounds, and key pain points for staff working in Connect Care. While we do ask you to identify a location where you work, this is so that leaders can address concerns that are specific to an area. Your individual responses are kept confidential.

Your responses are compiled, and the aggregate information is shared with site leadership, project sponsors, and others who support Connect Care implementation. The results of this survey will be compared with the results to the previous survey, making it possible to measure how Connect Care adoption and usage is evolving, and providing information to help guide ongoing support.

Your survey response is crucial for the Connect Care project team so we can support your best experience working in Connect Care, and so we can take what you have learned to future waves.

The survey will be live in Connect Care beginning July 13 and will be available until August 7.

You can also access the survey by clicking HERE.

2020-07-02

AHS CMIO Portfolio Leadership

A big welcome to Dr. Stuart Rosser who assumes leadership of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) portfolio this month!

From Dr. Francois Belanger, AHS Chief Medical Officer:


The CMIO plays a key part in the AHS senior leadership team. Reporting directly to the Vice President Quality & Chief Medical Officer of AHS and forming a triad with the Chief Information Officer (CIO), and the Senior Program Officer – Connect Care, the CMIO co-leads the development of a steady-state clinical IT and informatics strategy, as well as represent and communicate project and operational issues to clinical business leaders and clinicians within AHS, all while promoting clinical improvement and innovation. The CMIO directs and oversees engagement of physician communities in the five AHS zones, building awareness and opportunities for meaningful physician CIS adoption.

Dr. Rosser graduated from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine in 1988 and then completed his Masters of Public Health through the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999. From 1999 – 2006, he undertook several leadership roles with University of Manitoba’s HIV Program and in its Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Critical Care. He returned to Edmonton in 2006, where he is currently an Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alberta. He has an active clinical practice at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he was also Site Chief, Medicine, from 2014-2018.

Since 2017, Dr. Rosser has served as a Physician Design Lead with the Connect Care Project, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to this role. His familiarity with Connect Care design, build, and implementation will provide context and continuity for this transition period.



Rob Hayward returns to his clinical, teaching and innovation roles at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, but with significant ongoing contributions to the Connect Care initiative as a Master Clinical Builder and as Medical Director Clinical System Design. He will also continue these blogging channels and support for the Connect Care Manual and eHealth Glossary.

CMIO general queries continue to be received at cmio@ahs.ca and messages about blogs and manuals to cmio-manual@ahs.ca

2020-07-01

Getting the Supervising Provider Right

Trainees (medical students and residents) select a "Supervising Prescriber" (synonymous with "Authorizing Provider") when logging on to Connect Care, as previously posted. We've updated a previous FAQ about why this is important and what Connect Care activities are impacted. A tip and demo shows how Supervising Providers can be quickly changed, if needed, when switching between patients.

Note: selection of a Supervising Provider ceased to be part of trainee logons as of December 8, 2020. Please see the Manual for information about how this workflow is largely automated. The rest of this posting still applies.

We encounter situations where trainees do not select the correct Authorizing Provider when this needs to be explicitly indicated. Overriding the default Authorizing Provider is most likely needed when trainees are serving on consultation services or seeing emergency department patients on behalf of a consulting service. 

Most of the time this does not have much impact for inpatients. However, it determines who is called for critical test results and, understandably, physicians do not want to be called about patients they do not cover.

A simple test when entering orders, especially for tests, is consideration of which attending (staff) physician would need to be called for support in case of difficulty... for that patient at that time.

The authorizing physician is NOT the resident training program director, a more senior trainee, or some other physician not directly accountable for the clinical care that the trainee is providing at the time an order is entered.

There are many new trainees using Connect Care starting today. Please check the links above and take care when selecting a Supervising Prescriber at logon.