As 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), it's only fitting our last customer event of the year includes one of Canada's finest from the nursing profession. We are very pleased to have Corey Dalziel, RN, BSN, MA, director of e-Health & corporate information systems at Fraser Health Authority (Surrey, BC) presenting at MEDITECH's Chief Nurse Executive Symposium. A long-time MEDITECH customer, Fraser Health Authority is currently rolling out MEDITECH's Client/Server platform across the entire health authority, ensuring all facilities are operating on the same software platform. Such an expansive project takes time and planning—not to mention a special name. 'medCONNECT' is the project name Fraser gave to their MEDITECH Client/Server rollout. Slated for completion in 2011, the folks at Fraser feel that technology is transforming patient and client care for the better, as their MEDITECH clinical information system helps support the multidisciplinary work of health care teams.

Below, Corey shares her insight into the role of health information technology and how it is advancing patient care.

Health care providers spend a great deal of time recording transactional data. Integrated, longitudinal information has not always been available in a timely manner to support clinical decision-making. However, in the last 15 years, health care informatics has changed the face of nursing in Canada and has become a specialty unto itself.

Nurses have moved away from paper-based patient records and are now using health care information systems to support clinical decision-making and care planning. Health informatics has become a mainstream course of study in Canadian universities. For example, the University of Victoria (British Columbia) offers a Masters preparation in Health Informatics, and the development of the Canadian Nursing Informatics Association (CNIA) reflects the increased role informatics plays in health care.

By introducing MEDITECH's Client/Server technology throughout the entire authority, we are delivering an integrated clinical information system that shares information between sites and programs. Through the medConnect project, staff and providers use MEDITECH to enter a variety of clinical information—including demographics, orders, tests, results, and treatments—into the client's electronic health record (EHR).

The EHR is the birth-to-death health record for a patient/client/resident, in which all health-related information is entered and available to support health care decision-making. The goal of the EHR is to encompass all health-related encounters throughout the continuum of care, from a primary care visit with one's general practitioner, to a public health visit, to an acute episode within an acute care hospital.

Timely Information is a Key Principle
Putting information in the hands of the caregiver and the patient/client/resident at the time they require it provides the best means to supporting proper diagnosis, care planning, and treatment. The EHR is able to collate all visits, no matter where they occur, into a single view to aid the caregiver in diagnosis and treatment.

For example, unit clerks at our Peach Arch and Czorny Alzheimer Centre find Order Entry is improving patient and client care. The system immediately transmits orders (including lab tests, ultrasounds, x-rays, and dietary orders) in real-time to the appropriate department, as well as to the electronic record of orders and test results. In paper-information days, there would be phone calls and time spent tracking down the information. Or, diagnostic procedures would be repeated at a cost to the health care system, wasting time and causing further discomfort to the patient.

Furthering the Electronic Health Record, Advancing Health Care
The purpose of medConnect is to create a Fraser Health EHR. This means one integrated information system supporting clinicians in all their health care information needs and requirements.

My vision for the EHR is a birth-to-death health record incorporating the entire continuum of care in a way that makes sense and is useful to all clinicians and the patients/clients/residents it serves. We are currently in the planning stages of a Community Information System, where health service interactions outside of the hospital setting will be integrated within the EHR, giving us a fuller picture of an individual's health history and status.

For the past 15 years the move to the electronic age for health information has been my passion. I truly believe the move to electronic health information systems will support a better health care system and promote higher quality patient/client/resident care. I feel fortunate for the opportunity Fraser Health has given me, and our medConnect team, to make the EHR a reality for our care providers and the population we serve.