In a coordinated effort between Indigenous Health subject matter experts and the Digital Health team, a Documentation Sprint for the Indigenous Health space took place between September 2025 and April 2026. As part of this initiative, several key changes were implemented:
- The Indigenous Health flowsheet was updated to better represent the work being done by Indigenous Health staff.
- New SmartText was developed that pulls data from the Indigenous Health flowsheet.
- A new Indigenous Health Navigator was developed to streamline workflow and improve usability.
- Use of Indigenous Health Provider Teams was implemented.
A 2-month post-implementation evaluation looked at several measures related to these changes and highlighted early indicators of the positive impact these changes have already made:
- Comprehensive documentation and increased tool usage - Usage of the Indigenous Health flowsheet more than doubled, and there was clear uptake of the new SmartText tool.
- Reduced documentation time - The average active time spent documenting in the flowsheet decreased by approximately 30%.
- Reduced cancelled consults - There was a 26% decrease in the number of cancelled consults.
- Improved timeliness in documentation - There was a significant reduction in documentation latency, i.e., the time between the patient encounter and documentation.
- Improved efficiency in consult completion - There was nearly a 70% reduction in time between consult and completion of encounter.
All together, these early indicators demonstrate that giving providers access to culturally inclusive documentation tools makes it easier to document care, reduces the time they spend doing so, lets them finish consults faster, and targets the right care to the right patient. Next steps in this initiative will include continued monitoring, gathering user feedback, and further refinement of the tools and workflow.
Congratulations to all who were involved in this excellent work!