ElectronicHealthcare
Abstract
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance of three Ontario
hospitals is one of the first healthcare organizations in Canada to
roll out a secure Web portal (a McKesson product) that will provide
its physicians with "anytime, anywhere" access to comprehensive
patient information. With a single sign-on, physicians can access
data from across the enterprise and personalize their views of
information according to their work flow needs. For more
information contact Ronald.Dunn@McKesson.com
Adalsteinn Brown, Principal Researcher, Hospital
Report Research Collaborative, University of Toronto suggests
that hospitals in Ontario should now focus on the quality of the
underlying data of the latest round of report cards, suggesting
that offers the greatest payoff in quality improvement. Hospital
Report 2002: Acute Care is available on the following web sites:
<<a
href="https://www.gov.on.ca/health">https://www.gov.on.ca/health>,
<<a href="https://www.oha.com">https://www.oha.com>,
<<a href="https://www.cihi.ca">https://www.cihi.ca> and
<<a
href="https://www.hospitalreport.ca">https://www.hospitalreport.ca>.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
reported that annual health expenditures are expected to reach
$112.2 billion in 2002. This represents an increase of 6.3% over
the previous year, down from the rates of growth recorded in 2000
(8.5%) and 2001 (8.4%). "After adjusting for inflation, the rate of
growth in health expenditures this year is expected to be in line
with real growth in the economy", says Richard Alvarez, CIHI's
President and CEO, "Nevertheless, since 1997 our health
expenditures have grown by 30% on a constant (1997) dollar basis,
compared to estimated growth in the economy of 20%. The previous
five-year period, on the other hand, saw growth in health
expenditures of only 6%, compared to economic growth of
17%."
The boundaries of Alberta's nine new health regions come
into effect April 1, 2003. The boundaries are based on factors that
include patient flow patterns and community trade patterns. Other
goals were achieving larger regional populations, and taking
advantage of local centres of expertise in patient care and
administration, especially in rural areas.
The province of Saskatchewan approved plans to build a new $13 million medical facility in Fort Qu'Appelle. The cost of building and equipping the facility will be shared among various levels of government and aboriginal groups.
The government also launched a new Web site that gives
historical data on how long patients have waited for various
procedures in different regions. A list of patients currently
awaiting surgery will be added to the Web site when it's compiled
later this year. Dr. Peter Glynn chairs the Saskatchewan
Surgical Care Network. He says the Web site won't reduce
waiting times, but it will help people understand how the process
works. See: <<a
href="https://www.sasksurgery.ca">www.sasksurgery.ca>.
In London, Ontario, over 6,000 patients now have access to
primary care treatment and advice 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, as physicians in Family HealthNetworks (FHNs) work
with a nurse-staffed, after-hours telephone health advisory
service. These networks emphasize illness prevention and
comprehensive primary care for patients while promoting a stronger
doctor-patient relationship. Our next issue of
ElectronicHealthcare will examine the IT/IM implications of
the province's primary care strategy.
In January 2003, the Board of Trustees of the University Health
Network (UHN) approved an expenditure reduction plan that will see
the organization lower its expenditures by $20 million. It calls
for a reduction of patient volumes and a variety of other
initiatives designed to assist UHN in finishing the next fiscal
year in a balanced budget position. The reduction represents
approximately 3% of UHN's budget. It also represents three times
the total budget for the Weyburn General Hospital in
Saskatchewan.
BCE Emergis has appointed Daniel Baron as
Executive Vice President of eHealth Solutions Group (Canada).
Contact Daniel.baron@emergis.com
Dr. Roger Strasser is Founding Dean of the Northern
Medical School at Laurentian University and Lakehead
University. Dr. Strasser is a family practitioner with extensive
expertise in rural health in Australia. He received his Master's of
Clinical Science in Family Medicine from the University of Western
Ontario. Some facts on the Northern Medical School: open for
business September of 2004; students will be connected by e-mail
and virtual classes (no ivy will grow on these walls); two official
campuses - Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University
in Thunder Bay - more than 1,000 kilometres apart; 56 students will
be accepted each year; annual operating budget, expected to run
about $25 million.
David Wormald is the new Director of Diagnostic Imaging
at Halton Healthcare Services.
Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation has a new CEO,
Dora Nicinski. She is a registered nurse and former CEO of
the North Okanagan Health Region, based in Vernon, B.C.
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's new CEO is Ida
Goodreau. Interesting background: Senior Vice President, Global
Optimization & Human Resources of Norske Skog Industrier in
Oslo, Norway.
Donald M. Ford is President & CEO of the Capital
Health Board in Nova Scotia. Previously he was President &
CEO at the IWK Health Centre. At IWK, Dr. Alex
Gillis, is Interim President and CEO.
Carmel Olson is the new Chief Executive Officer for the
Brandon (Manitoba) RHA. She succeeds Mr. Earl Backman who
retired.
Krisan Palmer, Telehealth Coordinator, and Anne
Kilfoil, Director of Organizational Learning at Atlantic
Health Sciences Corporation, New Brunswick, were recently
recognized for innovative applications of IP based technologies.
They were awarded the Ted Freedman Award for 2002; the
presentation was made by the Education Health Services group of the
Ontario Hospital Association and the editors of Hospital
Quarterly. The award winners are leaders in the application of
technology, using telehealth in delivering regional, provincial and
inter-provincial services such as: tele-radiology, tele-homecare,
tele-cardiology, tele-mental health, tele-nephrology, tele-rehab,
tele-learning and tele-consultation. The e-learning strategy offers
24/7 access, multi-site access, just-in-time and on-demand
services, empowered users and the linking of related corporate and
business resources. Last year, almost 7,000 personal programs were
completed.
Saskatchewan's Health Quality Council is a new,
independent agency that will report on and recommend innovative
ways to improve quality within Saskatchewan's health system. See:
<<a href="https://www.hqc.sk.ca/">https://www.hqc.sk.ca/>
.
The Cancer Quality Council of Ontario will provide
evidence-based guidelines and monitor the quality of outcomes for
cancer patients in Ontario. See: <<a
href="https://www.cancercare.on.ca/about/quality/qualityprojectslist.html">https://www.cancercare.on.ca/about/quality/
qualityprojectslist.html>.
The "Mazankowski" report recommended that quality be the
top priority for Alberta's health system and that the
province set standards, measure results and hold people accountable
for achieving better outcomes in health. The organization is in
place. See: <<a
href="https://www.healthreform.ca/dir_1.html">https://www.healthreform.ca/dir_1.html>.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is deploying a state-of-the-art wireless network to provide high-speed connectivity to 44,000 students, staff and faculty from virtually anywhere on its campus. Based on technology from Cisco Systems, Inc. and supplied by TELUS, the network will cover more than one million square metres and all 300 of the university's buildings, making it the largest wireless local area network (LAN) in Canada and one of the largest in North America.
UBC implemented the wireless network in late summer 2002 and
expects to complete the installation by September 2003. It will
take advantage of the higher speed connectivity to power
high-bandwidth educational and research applications including
video streaming, advanced engineering applications and online
collaboration in areas such as engineering labs. The remainder of
the campus - including all classrooms, dormitories, administrative
buildings and numerous green areas, such as courtyards and parks -
will feature speeds of up to 11 mbps (which is comparable to a
standard corporate network). Contact Brian Lin at the University of
British Columbia: brian.lin@ubc.ca or Andrew Sage at Cisco -
asage@cisco.com.
HealthTrust Purchasing Group L.P. (HPG) a large U.S.
healthcare group purchasing organizations, has signed an agreement
with Per-Se for staff management software systems. The
agreement will enable HPG's member base of approximately 900
healthcare facilities nationwide to obtain the Per-Se software by
license. Contact Guy.Bujold@per-se.com.
Agfa is providing funds to establish an Executive Industrial Research Chair in Health Informatics at the University of Waterloo (UW). This UW research program will link experts from numerous disciplines to investigate, develop, apply, refine and evaluate health informatics solutions to fundamental problems faced by the Canadian healthcare system and so enhance collaboration in multidisciplinary research teams. For further information contact Dominic Covvey at dcovvey@csg.uwaterloo.ca.
The latest version of Agfa's cardiology information
integration enables the physician to use one workstation to view
all cardiology and radiology images as well as perform cath lab
measurements. Contact kimberley.elliott.ke1@ca.agfa.com.
eOptimize Advanced Systems Inc., another Canadian
survivor of the dot.com meltdown (see our feature on dot.com's
inside), and a scheduling and resource management technologies
company, has signed a software licensing agreement for its
About:Time™ for Healthcare software solution with Memorial
Health Services, a large not-for-profit hospital organization
located in Southern California. Contact rick.thompson@eoptimize.com.
ARAMARK's new Clinical Technology Services
provides resources to assist healthcare organizations in managing
their equipment lifecycles - from planning, evaluation and
procurement to service, support and disposal. Services include
maintenance management, accreditation documentation and support to
assess new and emerging technology. Contact: stephanie_kovalchuk@aramark.ca.
Johnson and Johnson continues to enhance its Web presence
for professionals. A recent study (Manhattan Research, "Taking the
Pulse") of 1,200 practicing physicians shows that more than half of
healthcare professionals are going online to find information about
pharmaceutical companies and their products. Fifty-five percent of
healthcare professionals go online every day, more than 75% of time
spent online is for professional purposes. In addition, 75% of
oncologists (CancerConsultants.com, online survey) interviewed
agreed that the Internet is essential to their practices. The study
found that doctors most often look for the following: prescribing
information, clinical information about a drug, information about
product pipeline, patient education materials and information about
clinical trials.
Another example of the Web's established role: Siemens
offers clinical, technical and managerial courses - many accredited
through the ASRT, SDMS, ASAR and other accreditation associations
for Continuing Education Credits.
Study of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
implementations and failures,
- Hidden costs and universal benefits of CPOE in best-of-breed
information systems
- The universal benefits of CPOE systems.
- Why CPOE may be easier to implement at a rural
hospital.
- Hard self-assessments of what went wrong at four leading
institutions, with an emphasis on avoiding troubles they
encountered.
- Implementers' views on successes at 10 sites. Includes executive and physician interviews. Contact Inside Information Group, Ltd. (805) 984-8500 or customer.service@insideinfo.com
Ian Fish, MD is now Chief Information Officer at the
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority; David Ostrow, MD is
Chief Information Officer at the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority; Wayne Mills is Vice President, Information
Services and Chief Information Officer at Trillium Health Centre;
Sharon Baker's new initiative at <<a
href="https://www.wellspring-consulting.ca">www.wellspring-consulting.ca>.
From Health Canada you can get an overview of the Health Info
Structure across Canada. Go to: <<a
href="https://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ohih-bsi/chics/pt/2002/sk_e.html">https://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ohih-bsi/chics/pt/
2002/sk_e.html>.
The Ontario Hospital eHealth Council has a number of active
working groups. To receive their eHealth Update regularly
send an email to ehealth@oha.com with
"Subscribe" in the subject.
| . . .
fromCanada Health Infoway
(Infoway) here are their first project
investments.
A. Provider Registry Projects Led by the British Columbia Ministry of Health Services, the Solutions Enhancement Project supports the development of a "reusable provider registry" by enhancing Western Health Information Collaborative's (WHIC) existing provider registry solution. The registry will be better able to meet the requirements of different jurisdictions through the inclusion, for example, of more types of licensed and non-licensed care providers. The project includes an assessment for conversion to HL7 V3, the emerging industry standard for messaging between healthcare information systems as well as support for HL7 V2.4. A key benefit is the development of a provider registry toolkit based on the HL7 standards that vendors and other jurisdictions in Canada can use to implement provider registries. Led by Saskatchewan, the System Integration and Implementation Toolkit will generate a "reusable toolkit" and develop best practices that can be used by different jurisdictions in the Provider Registry System to maximize the benefits of the registry to health regions and other service delivery agencies. This toolkit will consolidate the experiences and knowledge gained through implementations in Saskatchewan and other western provinces and through continued cooperation between WHIC partners. The toolkit will include technical expertise along with best practices related to the adoption of the registry from a business perspective. Together, these provider registry initiatives will lead to reduced costs for system deployment and uptake, application maintenance, software development, and reusability, as well as improved data security and privacy. The final deliverables for both initiatives are an upgraded version of a registry solution and a reusable toolkit for implementation. B. Client Registry Projects Working with the Newfoundland & Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI), the Jurisdictional Client Registry - "Best of Breed" Solution initiative supports the development of a reusable "jurisdictional client registry" by using "best of breed" components from existing systems and capitalizing on NLCHI's knowledge and experience in this area. The final deliverable is a reusable client registry solution and toolkit to support implementation in other jurisdictions. Led by Capital Health of Edmonton the Regional Client Registry - Regional Enterprise Master Person Index is part of the organization's overall electronic health record strategy. It involves the development of an enterprise master person index (EMPI) solution that will allow for the unique identification and matching of patient information from different sites. It will also eventually support the identification of patients who are referred into the region from other jurisdictions. The EMPI solution, for use by health regions and other jurisdictions across Canada, will integrate with jurisdictional (i.e., provincial) client registries. C. Architecture Design Architecture Migration Plan. This initiative will define the "common blueprint" for the overall EHR solutions including the technology standards and guidelines that will help determine how the system is designed and built. One of the key advantages of this blueprint is that it will help jurisdictions develop their technical roadmaps and ensure rapid development and deployment of EHR solutions at lower costs. It will also ensure the integration of existing systems and systems from various vendors into the EHR solution. The architecture will be developed with experts from the field and end users. The project will also compare the current state of solution architecture in jurisdictions with the planned future state in order to develop a plan to help jurisdictions migrate to and adopt the reusable components of the EHR solution. Architecture - Data Definitions and Standards. This project will ensure the development of the common standards and data definitions for EHR solutions. After analyzing the gap between the "as-is" state and the desired state of the standards and data definitions, Infoway, with input from partners across Canada, will develop a plan to advance them in support of the implementation of its 18-month tactical plan. The aim is to eliminate the need for individual organizations to develop, maintain and manage definitions for data and message content and structure, which in turn will lower the cost of development and maintenance of EHR solutions. If new standards need to be developed, they will be developed as part of a project. D. National Electronic Claims Processing
Standards PROJECT INVESTMENTS Source: <<a href="https://www.canadahealthinfoway.ca">www.canadahealthinfoway.ca> |
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