North York General Hospital advances patient safety with health IT

Results to be shared with other hospitals in Canada

TORONTO, May 25, 2012 /CNW/ – North York General Hospital (NYGH) is
leading an initiative that will help hospitals from across Canada
implement technology that improves patient safety.

The project, which received a $1 million investment from Canada Health
Infoway (Infoway), will leverage the investments that NYGH has already made in creating
over 350 electronic order sets covering medicine, surgery and critical
care, and will add an additional 250 order sets covering pediatrics,
maternal/newborn, and mental health. These electronic order sets
provide clinicians with up-to-date evidence, guidelines and treatment
best practices with links to regularly-updated information from leading
medical journals, helping to ensure patients receive the safest and
best quality care.

The funding will also support the development of the Canadian
Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) Toolkit to help hospitals and
health care providers across the country implement CPOE by making
NYGH’s order sets available for free.  CPOE eliminates the need for
handwritten orders and prescriptions, reducing the opportunity for
errors and enhancing communication between health care team members.

“I am delighted that Canada Health Infoway recognizes the leadership
role NYGH plays in eHealth innovation,” said Tim Rutledge, president
and CEO of NYGH. “This funding will allow us to advance our health
information technology infrastructure for the benefit of our patients,
while supporting other health care providers reach their full potential
in CPOE for the benefit of their patients.”

“Research from Canada and around the world points to CPOE as a key
enabler of patient safety gains,” said Richard Alvarez, president and
CEO, Canada Health Infoway.  “We’re delighted to help North York
General Hospital further their leading work in this area and share
their hands-on experience with others.”

Once the toolkit is developed, other hospitals will be able to add their
order sets, saving health care providers the time and money it would
take to develop their own. Funding will also be used to report and
evaluate physician adoption with following the order sets, the
percentage of physicians using the order sets and patient outcomes.

“It is truly remarkable technology and has made major improvements in
quality of patient care inside our hospital, and in the community we
serve,” says Dr. Jeremy Theal, a gastroenterologist and director of
Medical Informatics at North York General Hospital. “We hope that once
implemented in other hospitals, CPOE will make the same major strides
in patient safety as it did at NYGH.”

In October 2010, North York General Hospital launched the second phase
of eCare, a multi-year collaborative project with CPOE as a key
feature. It included several Canadian firsts for hospitals, such as
integrating medical literature into physician workflow and averting
adverse medication events using bar-code technology. Through the eCare
initiative, NYGH became the only community academic hospital in Canada
to receive a Stage 6 designation from HIMSS Analytics, the research arm
of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Since the launch of eCare phase two, all physicians from medical,
surgical, critical and paediatric care areas have adopted CPOE with 94
per cent of all orders entered directly by physicians. The remaining
six per cent of orders are comprised of verbal, phone and medical
directives entered by other clinicians.

About North York General Hospital

North York General Hospital, affiliated with the University of Toronto, is one of Canada’s leading
community academic hospitals. We offer our culturally diverse community
a wide range of acute care, ambulatory and long-term care services
across three sites.  The hospital embraces health by providing
innovative and compassionate care for the whole family at every stage
of life.

About Canada Health Infoway

Canada Health Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal
government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the
development and adoption of information and communications technology
projects in Canada. Fully respecting patient confidentiality, these
secure systems will provide clinicians and patients with the
information they need to better support safe care decisions and manage
their own health. Accessing this vital information quickly will help
foster a more modern and sustainable health care system for all
Canadians.

SOURCE North York General Hospital