Connect Care Newsletter - September 27, 2019

Connect Care News brings you a look at highlights and updates from the Connect Care program. To learn more, visit the Connect Care Insite page or the AHS website.

In this issue:

Patient Movement Day a success

It was standing room only last week when almost 600 staff and physicians packed the Bernard Snell Hall for the Wave 1 Patient Movement Day in Edmonton. The successful event gave attendees a look at how patient movement workflows, such as admission, discharge and transferals, will work in the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS). For many, it was their first look at the Connect Care CIS.

The purpose of the event was to provide staff and physicians demonstrations and hands-on experience for both common and complex patient movement workflows. Attendees were able to ask questions as they learned how these workflows will change and how their patient movement handoffs affect other users' workflows in the CIS.

Thank you to everyone who worked hard to make this a successful event and to the attendees for their enthusiasm and time. Contact us at connectcare@ahs.ca for more information on Wave 1 Patient Movement Day or other readiness events.

Meet our Connect Care Champions

Mark Kuberski, Business Intelligence Developer, AHS

Mark Kuberski is a Connect Care Super User. He says he’s happy Albertans will now have their electronic health information collected all in one place.

“When you go in for care, you don’t have to explain to the doctor what you’ve already done, what tests you’ve had, everything,” he says. “You can take ownership of your own health, which is exciting.”

Mark credits friendships between team members for their shared Connect Care successes.

“We can achieve a lot together," he says.

Learn more about our champions on Insite.

Capturing activity & workload information

When frontline staff start using the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS), the current processes for collecting activity and workload statistics will change for the better.

The main goal of activity and workload capture is to collect information at the point of care for clinical purposes then use the data for secondary purposes, such as strategic operational planning and decision making, activity based budgeting and Operational Best Practice (OBP). The new Connect Care reporting tools will give the organization more timely access to this information, while reducing the burden of data collection on front-line staff.

As Connect Care is rolled out across the province, activity information, such as visits/attendances will be captured in the Connect Care CIS. For many areas across the province, this will reduce or eliminate the need for manual statistical data entry by staff on paper or in electronic systems. When Connect Care launches in your area, workload minutes (time) data capture for most clinical services will be paused, with some exceptions.

We understand this will result in a gap in capturing workload minutes (time) data for many managers and leaders. By reducing the need for manual collection, we will allow staff to focus on adopting Connect Care. These gaps are temporary and interim workflows will be available.

For more information on how and when these changes will affect you, please reach out to your manager.

Wave 2 Leaders' Retreat

With so much focus on the upcoming Wave 1 launch, it’s easy to forget that preparations for the Wave 2 launch are also well underway. To get ready, Calgary Zone Wave 2 leaders came together earlier this month at a leaders’ retreat to learn more about Connect Care.

At the retreat, leaders received an overview of the project plan, discussed rural and urban approaches to training and learned about the importance of reporting. Of special note was the in-house visual graphic artistry (full image) used to creatively document the session.

Want to know more about Wave 2? Keep an eye on this newsletter for future updates.

External: https://ahs.ca/connectcare
Insite: https://insite.ahs.ca/connectcare
Feedback: connectcare@ahs.ca