An electronic health record has been identified as one of the critical foundational elements of a modern, integrated, accessible and sustainable health care system. But what does this mean for you and your health care?

St. Joseph's Health Centre is undertaking one of the largest projects in the hospital's history – converting your paper health care record to an electronic version by 2013. Most people will know this as "eHealth". But as we continue to work towards our project's goal, we are realizing the word "eHealth" doesn't fully capture all the changes that need to take place right at your bedside and in the way we are going to provide care to you as you move through our hospital.

We have decided to rename our project eCare because it puts more of a focus on what we are in the business of doing – caring for our patients and their families.

"This paperless record will provide a single accessible and integrated electronic chart for every patient treated at St. Joseph's," said Heather Binkle, Clinical Informatics Lead, for St. Joseph's.

This means your health record will have all of your relevant health information safely stored electronically in one place. Currently, the electronic health record provides some information about your hospital visit. For example, clinicians are able to view test results including laboratory tests, ECGs, and Diagnostic Imaging. In the future, it will provide access to clinical assessments, daily progress notes, and medication administration records, to name a few. eCare will give our health care teams access to your information in real time, right at our finger tips and right at your bedside.

SJHC is currently working through phase one, the foundational phase, of our eCare Strategy and transformations to your care are already taking place.

"We have a clear vision of where we are going and have created a roadmap to help us get there" said Binkle. "It is important that our clinicians are involved in this process so that we are certain that these new systems and changes will provide clinicians with the information they require to help them to do their work more efficiently."

Some of the things that are already rolling out in phase one of our eCare strategy you will see and experience as soon as you walk through our doors.

If you suffer from chronic health problems, the issues you've been treated for in our Emergency Department will follow your care through the scanning of the main assessment document done for all Emergency Department visits. This means, if you need to return to our Emergency Department or get seen somewhere else in the hospital, your treatment information from previous Emergency Department visits to SJHC will be accessible and can help to determine the care that you should receive. Your family physician is also kept in the loop as the system will auto–fax the assessment document to them.

If you need to have an ECG scan done, the time spent waiting for the results has been reduced. Previously, paper copies of ECGs had to be transported by hand to the Cardiologist for them to review and make recommendations. Now an ECG test is visible through your electronic health record as soon as it is completed. Our Cardiologists can view the ECG on a computer anywhere within the hospital and from home.

Our new telemetry monitoring system, which is responsible for tracking your heart rate, oxygen levels and other individually set indicators, now automatically sends a signal to a pager carried by a health care professional, as well as centrally located computer monitors if your levels fluctuate beyond their determined limits.

Children are also benefiting from the changes. When visiting our Just for Kids clinic full electronic documentation of your child's care is taking place. If you have to bring your child back to the Just for Kids clinic or to the Emergency Department for any reason, the history of care that they have received is readily available giving physicians a complete picture of their health – not just the symptoms your child is currently presenting with.

"These changes will extend right through to the patient's discharge when important follow up information and education may be provided," said Binkle. She explains that the technology SJHC is working towards over the next three years will allow clinicians to print instruction sheets in a variety of languages and text sizes, customizing them for your individual needs. Prescriptions will also be more legible as they will be printed from the system so there are fewer chances for errors and misunderstandings in the amount and type of medication that is dispensed to you.

St. Joe's is also committed to working with our Local Heatlh Integration Network (LHIN) to provide appropriate access to patient health information to care providers from different organizations. We are currently able to provide access to Lab results from a number of organizations in the GTA via the Patient Results Online portal (PRO-viewer) and to provide access to treatment children may have received across Ontario via the Electronic Child Health Network (eCHN).

In the future, our computers at the bedside will provide your nurses and doctors with the ability to electronically enter information about your care and condition, giving them more time with you. Relevant information about your care from other health care providers within the Local Health Integration Networks will also be easily accessible, ensuring that we have the full story to provide the right care to you, at the right time - when you need it.

The systems we are using follow both government requirements and industry standards to ensure that your privacy will not be compromised. After we have achieved a fully electronic health record you will still have the same level of access to your information that you did with the paper version. We are excited about these new systems and the changes that they are allowing us to make are helping to put our patients first at St. Joseph's Health Centre. We hope you are also excited about what is coming! Watch for more information on our website and in our newsletters as we progress towards a fully electronic health record.

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Page last updated: April 30, 2010