Seeking Digital Health Provincial Medical Informatics Leads

Alberta Health Services is seeking passionate leaders to fill multiple available positions as Digital Health Provincial Medical Informatics Leads (PMILs). The PMILs will be at the forefront of driving digital transformation in health care across the province. This pivotal role combines clinical expertise with digital health leadership to shape the future of clinical information systems through:

• maintenance and improvement of knowledge and workflows in clinical information systems, with a goal to improve quality, efficiency, and safety of patient care;
• engagement with prescribers to gather input and advice on clinical information system improvements, as well as to act as a champion for system adoption; and
• development of communications and education materials for prescribers, to drive optimal system use and improve user satisfaction. 

In these capacities, each PMIL will be the key Digital Health medical lead on the provincial Clinical Systems Improvement (CSI) Team for a given clinical program. The available PMIL positions are for the following specialties: Emergency & EMS, Critical Care, Neuroscience & Stroke, Medicine, Surgery, Cardiovascular, Women's Health, Children's Health, Cancer, Population and Public Health, Indigenous Health, Mental Health & Addiction, Continuing Care, Primary Care, Lab, and DI.

The PMILs will be seasoned physicians within the province of Alberta who understand the complexities of large-scale transformational change, are committed to continuous quality improvement, and can contribute to the innovation, integration, and consistency of patient-centered clinical care. The successful candidates would report to the assigned Physician Design Leads for their clinical program and the Chief Medical Information Officer, and will work closely with a number of teams within the Chief Medical Information Office, Clinical Operations Informatics Office, and Information Technology.

The posting will remain open until suitable candidates are found. 

For a full description of the position and to apply:

• Posting: Doctor Jobs Alberta - Digital Health Provincial Medical Informatics Lead
• Contact: David.Pincock@ahs.ca

Countdown Checklist L9, T-minus 23: Take Action to Receive Results to your Community Clinic

Continuing a list of essential actions for Connect Care Launch 9 prescribers readying for launch November 2, 2024...

• Take Action to Receive Results to your Community/ Non-AHS Clinic(s)

Community providers throughout Alberta who order general lab, microbiology tests, pathology, and all other specialty labs, diagnostic imaging (DI), or who submit specimens for testing, need to take action. Every requisition given to a patient seen outside of AHS or sent with a specimen from a non-AHS site (including microbiology, pathology and specialty tests) needs to contain: 

• Authorizing provider’s full name
• Clinic name
• Address
• Submitter ID (for labs)
• Department ID (for DI) 
• Provider ID for the authorizing provider
• All pertinent clinical information 

An audit in the latter part of 2023 showed that nearly half of providers were not using the provider, submitter, and department IDs on their requisitions. When the IDs are not used, delivery of results to your EMR or clinic fax/mail may be significantly delayed. Provider, submitter and department IDs, and can be found at provideridlookup.ahs.ca. 

For more information:

• Tip: Using Connect Care IDs on Laboratory and DI Requisitions
• Resource: Delivery of Results to Community-based Providers from Connect Care

Connect Care Scheduled Downtime - Thursday October 10, 2024, 00:30-04:30

What you need to know

The Connect Care clinical information system needs periodic maintenance. The next scheduled update will occur Thursday, October 10, 2024 between 00:30 and 04:30. On this occasion, all Connect Care production systems are affected, including Hyperdrive, Mobility (Haiku/Canto), MyAHS Connect, and the Link Provider Portal, as well as Connect Care ancillary systems, including Transfusion (WellSky).

• PRD SRO will be available during this downtime. PRD SRO is accessible from any computer used for documenting in Connect Care regularly. Netcare also remains available. 
• If you need to view and print patient information during the downtime, please use North BCA Web or South BCA Web; if both North and South BCA Web access is not available, please call the Provincial Solution Center at 1-877-311-4300. 

What you need to do

BEFORE DOWNTIME

• Complete orders and documentation in the chart before downtime begins.
• Stop using PRD for orders 15 minutes prior to downtime, as they may not be processed.

DURING DOWNTIME

• Check with Unit Clerk/Charge Nurse to confirm processes for ordering, documentation, and patient movement.
• Use paper documents provided in clinics and inpatient units, with forms appropriate for orders and/or charting.
• Postpone, if possible, routine orders or documentation until after downtime. This will limit amount of data entry and reconciliation required post-downtime.
• Orders: Use paper order sheets for essential orders during downtime.
• Documentation: Use paper forms or eScription for essential documentation for procedures or intervention results and reports.

AFTER DOWNTIME

• Prescribers are responsible for the following activities for any patient admission, transfer, or discharge:
• Updating the problem list
• Completing medication reconciliation
• Entering admission, discharge, or visit diagnosis
• Prescribers receiving In Basket messages about missing chart elements should follow the link to the missing chart element and, for non-ED prescribers, enter “.DOWNTIME” (SmartPhrase) to complete the chart element, indicating that content is available elsewhere in the chart. For ED prescribers, use the SmartPhrase ".DTNOTE".

Where you can find more information

For essential information on downtime procedures, see the 1-page tip sheet. For additional information, see the Connect Care Manual:

• Tip: Downtime Essentials for Prescribers
• Manual: Downtime Procedures

Connect Care Fax Application Outages - October 9 and 11, 2024, 05:00-06:00

Outbound faxes sent directly from Connect Care (including eFaxed prescriptions) are handled by the RightFax application. RightFax will be unavailable on Wednesday October 9, 2024, from 05:00 to 06:00, and Friday October 11, 2024, from 05:00 to 06:00, in order to accommodate a software upgrade. 

• Connect Care will still be available, but faxes will not be transmitted from Connect Care during these times.
• Any electronic faxes created in Connect Care during these times will be queued and transmitted once the downtime is complete. 
• Traditional fax machines are not affected by these downtimes. Please use traditional fax machine for time-sensitive faxing during these outages.

Countdown Checklist L9, T-minus 25: Confirm Connect Care Access and Login Role

Continuing a list of essential actions for Connect Care Launch 9 prescribers readying for launch November 2, 2024...

• Confirm Access and Role(s)

Do you, or could you, have clinical duties November 2, 2024 or following at a Launch 9 site?

If so, it is essential that you confirm that you have access to the AHS Network (insite.ahs.ca), to the Unified Access Portal (myapps.ahs.ca) and to Production (PRD) Connect Care. A successful PRD login (using your AHS username and password) is just the start. It is also important that a PRD login opens a Connect Care environment appropriate to one's roles and duties. Best to sort out any problems now, well before launch.

A "virtual login lab", which occurs during personalization training, allows Launch 9 clinicians to confirm that they have access to the right tools in the right way. Follow these steps (in order):

• Complete basic training, the associated end-user proficiency assessment (EUPA) and On Our Best Behaviours (InfoCare privacy training).
• Login to myapps.ahs.ca with AHS network (HEALTHY) login credentials and launch Connect Care production (PRD).
• At the Hyperspace login screen, enter your AHS username and password.
• If multiple "jobs" are presented (multi-role physician), complete the rest of this process for each in turn.
• When asked for a "Department", choose the appropriate zone virtual clinical department (e.g., Edmonton Zone Cardiology, Edmonton Zone Pediatrics). 
• Note: Only a few specialties use a physical department for login - see the Manual for the list of exceptions.
• Once opened into Hyperspace, use the search function (top-right corner), type "CMIO" and jump to the "CMIO Login Labs Info" activity. Alternately, select the top-left "Epic" button, then "Help", then the "CMIO Login Labs Info" submenu item.
• Examine the information provided and complete the linked survey to indicate whether the physician roles and templates appear correct.

For more information:

• Tip: CMIO Login Lab
• Manual: CIS Access
• Manual: Choosing the Right Login Department
• Manual: Identity and Contact Information
• Tip: Confirming Prescriber Registry Information

On Other Channels...

Thank you for continuing to check the Connect Care update blog for prescribers (ideally, subscribe to multiple channels; see instructions). Recent additions to this blog and its various channels are listed below. Reminder that a camera icon in a blog post on any of our channels indicates that there is an accompanying screenshot - just click the icon to view. 

• General
• Order Sets - Order-Related Clinical Decision Supports
• Support
• Optimization Training - Classes in October
• Inpatient Order Set Updates - Swallow Screen and Bronchiolitis
• Enhanced Discharge as Deceased Navigator
• COVID-19 and Connect Care - Hospital Vaccinations Order Set Updated
• Auto-expiry of Additional In Basket Message Types
• Dragon Medical One Upgrade
• Launch 9
• Launch 9 Supports for Prescribers
• Countdown Checklist
• T-minus 28: Get Ready for Billing Workflows
• Tips
• Tippy - F1 Help
• Tippy - Keyboard Shortcuts
• Manual
• See What's New (updates and additions)
• Between the Charts: CMIO Newsletter for Prescribers

Countdown Checklist L9, T-minus 28: Get Ready for Billing Workflows

Continuing our list of essential actions for Connect Care Launch 9 prescribers readying for launch November 2, 2024...

• Learn about Billing Workflows in Connect Care

A previous item introduced the “Service Codes” activity available in patient charts opened in Hyperspace, which allows prescribers to integrate Professional Billing into clinical workflows. Watch this short, animated video to understand the advantages of this workflow over traditional paper billing documentation. Documentation via the Connect Care mobile apps, Canto and Haiku, uses workflows similar to Service Codes. 

The Alberta Health Information Act permits prescribers to use personally identifiable health information for the purposes of getting paid for services. Traditionally, medical staff at AHS, Covenant Health and other publicly funded facilities would print this protected patient information from legacy electronic medical records (EMRs), and then make notes on the printout about health services charges to be submitted to Alberta Health or other payer. When using Service Code Capture and Professional Billing, patient and billing information is fully secure, and kept private throughout the workflow. For more information, please contact ServiceCodeCapture@ahs.ca; for NP-specific billing questions, contact Provincial NP Services at prov.npservices@ahs.ca.

• Manual: Professional Billing
• Insite: Nurse Practitioner Professional Billing
• Manual: Charge Capture
• Manual: Mobile Charge Capture

Order Sets - Order-Related Clinical Decision Supports

While we will highlight new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions in our Support channel if the change has a wide impact on prescribers, often changes are not flagged when the change is intuitive and does not require a new skill to be developed.

One such change could include a new or updated order set. Order sets (or "SmartSets" in outpatient contexts) are organized collections of information, tools and orderables that address a specific health condition or management challenge. They are one of the types of protocolled orders available in Connect Care that combine documentation, decision and inquiry-support for a more efficient and error-free ordering workflow. Clinicians are helped with uncommon health problems when, for example, the most relevant intervention orders are complemented by digests of relevant evidence-informed guidance. 

Our build teams do their best to make order sets as intuitive as possible. So, while it is a good idea to bookmark or subscribe to the Support channel to receive notice of updates in Connect Care, often, in the case of new/updated order sets, the "what you need to know" is simply to use the order set and follow the guidance embedded directly in that order set.

• Manual: Protocolled Orders