The Ottawa Hospital will "develop and change" its electronic medical record system to bridge the information gap between clinics with an in-fusion of cash from Canada Health Infoway, according to the hospital's chief information officer.
The hospital funded its own sys-tem with a focus on in-patients, Dr. Glen Geiger said in a Thursday interview, but will now expand it to include outpatients thanks to the hospital's share of $100 million that will be divided among 19 outpatient electronic medical record projects across the country.
While in-patients require quick results and treatment, outpatients require continuity of care for more complex problems, he said.
"In the in-patient world, the need was to make sure lab tests done this morning can be seen by me immediately," Geiger said. "In the ambulatory (outpatient) environment, the intensity is less - so although lab results and X-ray reports are important, clinic notes and specialist reports are perhaps more import-ant."
Richard Alvarez, president and CEO of Canada Health Infoway, said the outpatient electronic medical record project is "the last frontier" in streamlining patient information from doctor to doctor.
The independent not-for-profit organization, which is funded by the federal government, has allocated more than $2 billion since 2001 to help develop a network of electronic health records.
"A lot of the investment has gone previously into providing value - if the lab results are not automated or if medication history is not automated, then there's no point in giving doctors computers. Now that a lot of that stuff is automated, you can pro-vide value to the point of care, to the desktop," said Alvarez.
"It is the natural progression of the e-health project in Canada and in Ontario."
Canada Health Infoway collaborates with provinces and territories, including eHealth Ontario, in health information technology projects.
The outpatient project is meant to facilitate the transfer of information among clinics within and outside the hospital, including family doctors, Geiger said.
"We're making our technology, our systems, available to the family doctors directly," Geiger said.
"Many complex patients looked after here at the hospital might be seen in cardiology clinic, in endocrinology clinic, in respirology clinic and so on, at different times. The need there is for clinicians to be able to see notes and information documented by other clinics so that they can follow what's going on with a patient from the point of view of other specialists."
One part of the project includes capturing patients' vital signs electronically. A pilot project will begin in mid-2013, he said.
Alvarez estimated that the project would give more than 25,000 health care providers across the country easier access to patient information. "Less time spent chasing down information means more time that can be spent with patients," Alvarez said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Chloé Fedio
Quelle/Source: Ottawa Citizen, 07.09.2012
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