Northeastern Ontario hospitals switch to new electronic records system today

There's big change coming to the regional health-care system today as local hospitals officially adopt a new electronic records system.

Eleven hospitals made the switch earlier in May, but the remaining 12 are transitioning today. 

That includes facilities like Health Sciences North, West Nipissing General Hospital, Mattawa Hospital, Chapleau Health Services, Espanola Regional Hospital and Health Centre, Manitoulin Health Centre and the North Shore Health Network. 

The new system involves a web-based portal that will be accessible to all member organizations, meaning patients won't have to repeat their medical history as they go for care in different facilities. It will also reduce the risk of human error when transcribing or scanning documents into files.

It took years to put in place as the system needed to be built with parameters specific to each hospital.

For health workers, it means adjusting to a new workflow, where information will be entered directly in the system as opposed to being written down and scanned later on.

For example, up until today, the emergency department at the Manitoulin Health Centre was solely paper-based. 

"We used to scan the information into the record. Now the physicians will be entering their orders directly on the computer or tablet," said CEO Paula Fields.

Expect longer wait times, particularly in the emergency department

This is a process that will slow down the delivery of care, as more information needs to be entered during the visit.

For example, at Blanche River Health in the Kirkland Lake area, triage time at the emergency department has gone from an average of four minutes to 30 minutes, according to CEO Jorge VanSlyke.

"There are some things that will take longer because we no longer have paper," she said. "But in many ways it's providing safer ways of doing the workflow." 

On Manitoulin, staff are preparing for this reality, says Fields. 

"We are realists and we know that this new system may slow down the care to some degree permanently," said Fields. "As clinicians adapt, of course, that gap will get smaller and smaller."

Clinical teams across the northeast have been training for this transition for months, but it'll take time to put that training into practice. 

Emergency departments are where patients might notice the most impact, as the process of registration and triage will take longer. 

To compensate, facilities like the Espanola Regional Hospital have made arrangements to reduce appointments in the diagnostic and laboratory departments over the next few weeks.

"We've had to allow staff to manage the workflow so that they're not feeling overwhelmed by the increased wait times," said Anna Love, the hospital's chief nursing officer and vice-president of clinical services. 

"We're asking for patience and understanding from the public as we move through this transition," she said.

The health information system chosen by northeastern Ontario facilities is different from the one being used in the province's south. 

This means the systems won't talk to each other, and hospitals in areas like Toronto won't be able to access the electronic medical record of patients in the northeast.