23 November 2021

EMR update: Workshops to reconvene and new project timeline announced

With the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Victoria in the past few months, Northern Health’s resources were increasingly focused on the COVID response and a decision was made in September to pause aspects of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) project.

This decision, together with redeploying some of our EMR analysts and senior medical staff back to their substantive roles, allowed our staff to focus on providing patient care for our community.

During this time, the EMR team took the opportunity to realign and evaluate project activities, as well as plan ahead for 2022/23.

While COVID-19 continues to place strain on our healthcare workers, the EMR team is taking a considered and pragmatic approach after recommencing Workshop 4 on 22 November. Keeping the best interest of our staff in mind, the workshops are planned carefully to minimise the impact on our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) but ensure governance is adhered to from a workflow design perspective.

“We used this time to recalibrate our efforts on refining workflows, design, build and testing of EMR components in preparation for upcoming November workshops. Initiatives to improve stakeholder engagement and maximise their time in this COVID new reality, has also been a joint focus of attention with our partners Cerner,” says Sarai Abel, EMR Application Manager.

“We are looking forward to the next series of workshops with our SMEs to review workflows such as blood transfusion, maternity and Specialty Nursing Services workflows,” explained Vanessa Reid, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer.

A new project timeline was announced last week at The Wall with a refreshed go-live date.

“We will complete our EMR build by July 2022 followed by testing and planning for training in January 2023, with a go-live set for 3 April 2023. It seems far away but it is really just around the corner,” says Trish Aldridge, EMR Director.

EMR training will take place from January to March 2023. More information on EMR training can be found here. For a detailed project timeline, click here.

The EMR team is excited to re-engage with staff at the workshops.