For an Alberta Health Services (AHS) Clinical Information System (CIS) initiative to achieve its goals, it is essential that the right information be appropriately captured, documented, shared, disclosed and used. These are matters of information sharing. They touch the core of health care professionalism and change as clinicians move from siloed paper records to shared digital records.
In order to address the need for CIS information sharing norms, and to account for professional obligations and legislative imperatives, a CIS Information Sharing Compact is developed by AHS in collaboration with healthcare professionals. Its adoption can promote effective information sharing in continuum-of-care enterprise clinical information systems.
A compact is clear statement of reciprocal expectations and accountabilities between two groups. It is not a legal contract but is a matter of public accountability. Compacts are the dynamic outcome of collaborative efforts to understand shared interests. They leverage common goals – such as improving care for patients and populations – to discover how participant interests can be best aligned.
