8 January 2023

Lauren Andrew as EMR Implementation and Adoption Manager

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) team is excited to introduce Lauren Andrew as the EMR Implementation and Adoption Manager.

As a physiotherapist by background, Lauren has always been driven by improving patient care and safety. She was first involved in the digital health transformations by implementing an EMR at Royal Children’s Hospital in 2016, and has since worked for almost a decade in informatics. “With projects like EMR, it is really satisfying to see improvement in patient safety and care, and having a single source of truth for clinical data that clinicians can access at their fingertips to drive positive changes in clinical care. This part of the project is what motivates me most”, says Lauren.

One can say Lauren is extremely dedicated to implementing successful EMRs as this is her third EMR project. “I think EMR go live is an amazing time. The energy of the EMR and leadership team working together to support and assist staff to use the system is something really great to experience”, says Lauren. During go live, she often finds herself celebrating the EMR trainers and super users as they worked extremely hard to ensure that their colleagues are well trained and supported when the system is implemented, and that they are the “stars of the show” especially during the first 4 weeks of go live.

With her new role as the EMR Implementation and Adoption Manager, she will be working with the Executives, Site Directors, Head of Units, and Nurse Unit Managers to ensure the organisation is ready for the EMR go live in September 2023. “Implementing an EMR will be a huge change in how Northern Health delivers patient care. For many Northern Health Accountable Leaders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), who have worked with the EMR team on design and build, they already have a head start in understanding what is being implemented. But for most staff, 2023 will be the year that they learn about the EMR and how to use the system to deliver patient care”, says Lauren.

Speaking from her most recent EMR implementation at Canberra, while implementing an EMR is exciting, it can also be somewhat daunting for staff, as “they will have to learn a new system, support their colleagues, and continue patient care all together in a short time”. One of Lauren’s top priorities in the coming 3 months, other than getting to know our staff and the community we serve, is “to work out how best to design and deliver an operational readiness program tailored for Northern Health”. “Releasing staff to attend EMR training will be difficult. Northern Health has a proud recent history of managing change, and I am confident that we as an organisation will get through it together”, Lauren concludes.

With Christmas just passed, she has revealed to us one of the items on her wish list – that Santa will bring us more nurses in 2023!

A very warm welcome to Lauren from the EMR team!