Connect Care’s third wave launched successfully in the early morning hours of April 10. With it, Alberta Health Services added 31 full and partial sites, 4,000 staff and 280 physicians to the Connect Care family.
Grande Prairie’s QEII Hospital Emergency Department manager, Tracy Peddy, says even a few hours after launch she’s already glad to say goodbye to paper charting for good.
“There's probably not a nurse in Alberta who hasn't wanted an electronic system that ties in the patient's entire medical record,” Peddy said. “In the first 30 minutes, I heard more staff say, ‘Oh, this is great. This is wonderful.’”
Wave 3’s launch primarily encompasses sites in the west side of North Zone. It incorporates related clinical support programs including pharmacy, diagnostic imaging services, Alberta Precision Labs associated with these programs and services, Health Information Management, Nutrition and Food Services, and other support areas.
“Our patients have been our focus every step of the way. Connect Care is transforming how patient information flows between patients and their healthcare providers. When complete, we will have a central access point for current and accurate patient information across AHS,” said Dr. Francois Belanger, Chief Medical Officer, AHS.
Jody Solomon is a Connect Care clinical informatics lead at the QEII hospital. She says it is the way staff help each other that makes preparing for and launching Connect Care successful.
“It is the teamwork that comes out of a launch is absolutely incredible from the super user teams, to the core teams, to everybody working in operations. And it it's just absolutely amazing to see everybody come together to support a launch as big as this,” she said.
Connect Care launched for the first time in November 2019. The next launch is planned for fall 2021.
