Island Health medical, clinical, operational and support teams are doing everything possible to respond to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and sustain the health care system in our communities. Listening to input from physicians, staff and leaders, and to relieve pressure during this particularly stressful time, we have decided to re-schedule full implementation of IHealth Electronic Clinical Documentation to September.
This means most groups across Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospital sites will not go live in waves beginning in May, but will instead implement in a more consolidated single wave beginning in the third week of September.
However, some groups and sites have expressed their readiness to move forward now, and some have already started documenting electronically; training, support and adoption of new learning for those groups and sites will go ahead, wherever possible. For example, medical staff can continue with training and Electronic Clinical Documentation for those note types that are currently dictated (i.e., admission histories, consultations, operative and procedural notes and discharge summaries).
Project staff will continue to work closely with site leads, medical and clinical leaders and unit managers to revise timelines for training and implementation, accordingly. Other background support activities for the change – such as document scanning, Critical Care design and device deployment – will continue during this interval, as will change management support and planning.
If you have input for the adapted implementation planning, or questions, please contact Gloria Bouchard gloria.bouchard@viha.ca