14 November 2023

EMR: What’s happening now?

We are now more than nine weeks into using the EMR. As you may know, the EMR team has transitioned from providing 24/7 support to an on-call roster. EMR on-call is in place for urgent issues and this will be triaged by the Afterhours Coordinator.

In addition to re-educating our staff on workflows and functionality on a request basis, the team is focusing on managing and resolving change requests submitted by our staff. While all the implemented workflows designed and built into the EMR are guided by Northern Health’s policy and procedure, as we get more familiar with using the EMR, we may identify opportunities to enhance the efficiency of patient care delivery.

“With any change request that comes through from Cherwell, these are reviewed weekly by governance to assess the impact of changes on both the system and workflow to ensure that patient safety and the quality of care remain the top priorities of the EMR,” says Rozan Madtha, EMR Solution Architect.

Trish Aldridge, EMR Program Director, highlights the success of Northern Health’s EMR implementation, considering the scale of the implementation.

“Go live can be extremely overwhelming but our staff have done a tremendous job of adjusting to this change while providing care for our patients,” she said.

“With many lessons learned from the team, we encourage everyone to participate in the EMR Satisfaction Survey to capture your thoughts and feedback.”

The EMR Satisfaction Survey closes on 17 November. So far, we have captured more than 270 responses with valuable feedback. More than 80 per cent of participants have expressed increased confidence in using the EMR since its initial launch. To participate in this anonymous survey, click here.