Connect Care Community Provider Update, Issue 2, September 2020

Connect Care will launch “Wave 2” at Edmonton suburban sites on October 24, 2020.  Community healthcare providers continue to use their existing Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and other processes to manage patient information that is not part of the AHS record of care.  

Community practitioners are a huge part of any person’s care team, and it’s vital that you have information and awareness about Connect Care and how it will support and benefit the care of your patients. To help ensure a smooth transition, regardless of wave or where you practice, to ensure ongoing delivery of laboratory and diagnostic imaging results to your office, community providers in Alberta need to: 

• Use Connect Care Identifiers 
• Use new requisitions to order labs and diagnostic imaging that can incorporate those identifiers
• Advise AHS if your practice location(s) change, even if short term.
• Provide your preferred method for receiving results and other information from AHS and affiliated organizations. 

For the full edition: Connect Care Community Provider Update, Issue 2, September 2020

Contact Information: 

• Connect Care: ccproviderbridge@ahs.ca 
• Update your provider information with AHS: AHS.Provider_Requests@ahs.ca 

FAQ Update: Results Routing for Prescribers Working at Multiple Sites

FAQ: Results Routing for Prescribers Working at Multiple Sites

Results and Reports Routing - Multisite

Prescribers who order laboratory tests, diagnostic imaging (DI) and other interventions from more than one practice location (site) will need to understand how the associated results and reports are returned for their review once the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS) is implemented.

We previously posted answers to questions for prescribers who use a single Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in a single practice location; a relatively straightforward use-case.

A new FAQ addresses more complicated information flows, such as those affecting physicians who work with more than one EMR, more than one practice location or a mix of EMR(s) and the Connect Care CIS.

• Briefing: Results and Reports Routing
• Backgrounder: Results and Reports Routing
• FAQ: eDelivery (Results Routing)
• --> FAQ: Results and Reports Routing (Multisite)

Connect Care Results and Reports Routing

The Non-AHS Community Physician Advisory Group (NACPAG) has been busy working through anticipated Connect Care impacts on test results and reports routing to ordering providers.

Two communication aids emerge. The first, posted here, answers questions for prescribers who use a single Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in a single practice location; a relatively straightforward use-case. eDelivery of results and reports to the EMR is maintained. Indeed, it is improved in many ways. There are changes to identifiers added to laboratory requisitions which are important for physicians to prepare for. An "eDelivery Frequently Asked Questions" is linked below and will be sequentially posted to this blog.

A second FAQ will address more complicated information flows, such as those affecting physicians who work with more than one EMR, more than one practice location or a mix of EMR(s) and the Connect Care CIS. Coming soon.

For now, please promote this blog and widely circulate the FAQ:

• Briefing: Results and Reports Routing
• Backgrounder: Results and Reports Routing
• --> FAQ: eDelivery (Results Routing)

FAQ: eDelivery for Community Providers

Connect Care Community Provider Update - August 2019

How will Connect Care relate to Electronic Medical Records?

Alberta Health Services (AHS) strives to support the information sharing needed by the patient’s entire healthcare team, within and without Connect Care.

The electronic medical records (EMRs) relied upon by healthcare providers outside Connect Care settings must not be negatively impacted as Connect Care rolls out. Instead, the clinical information system (CIS) should expand opportunities for safe and effective information sharing. There are a number of ways for external systems to leverage the benefits of Connect Care.

A continuing eDelivery service brings laboratory test results, diagnostic imaging reports and other important information to EMRs in ways that allow the right information to be correctly placed in the right chart. Connect Care will make eDelivery easier by standardizing and simplifying the source for much of this information. Physicians currently receiving any form of eDelivery will be able to access a wider range of tests, reports and notifications as Connect Care rolls out. This is facilitated by AHS and the EMR vendors, so there is no need for physicians to request any expansion of eDelivery services. Physicians new to or seeking eDelivery can learn more online.

The Central Patient Attachment Registry (CPAR) and Community Integration Initiative (CII), are joint undertakings of Alberta Health, the Alberta Medical Association, and AHS; allowing EMRs to send and receive standardized summaries of patient needs with the Alberta Netcare provincial electronic health record. In time, Connect Care will also interface to CII and both draw from and contribute to CPAR data.

• FAQ: Evolving Alberta Health Information Landscape

How will Connect Care Relate to Netcare?

Alberta's provincial Electronic Health Record, Netcare, aggregates key health information for all Albertans and makes it available to authorized providers.

Netcare will gain from Connect Care health information services. A wider range of standardized information, conveniently sourced from a single clinical information system (CIS) will facilitate easier tabulation and graphing of test information from all parts of Alberta. Additionally, new categories of information will become available to authorized providers. For example, work is underway to improve the range and consistency of emergency visit summaries delivered, in a standardized way, to Netcare.

• FAQ: Evolving Alberta Health Information Landscape

How will Connect Care be felt outside Connect Care?

A variety of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) facilitate primary and specialty healthcare where Connect Care is not the record of care. These physicians, clinics and networks will continue to manage the health information for the services they provide. Naturally, these physicians also wonder how the advent of Connect Care might affect their current and future opportunities for informational, relational and knowledge continuity.

Connect Care can positively impact non-Connect Care settings in a number of ways:

• Alberta's provincial Electronic Health Record, Netcare, which aggregates key health information and makes it available to authorized providers, is improved when Connect Care deploys because it gains a wider range of information from a single, standards-based, CIS source.
• "eDelivery" of health information from Connect Care and Netcare to EMRs is improved because a single CIS makes more information in a more consistent format easier for EMRs to capture and organize.
• New "Community Information Integration" (CII) and a "Central Patient Attachment Registry" (CPAR) initiatives jointly allow patients to be linked to a medical home, and for that home to share information with Netcare; extending sharing to include Connect Care as it rolls-out.
• A Connect Care Provider Portal provides access to the information that non-Connect Care prescribers need while also facilitating communication, notifications, referral and consultation, ordering and contributing to the Connect Care record.

Working together, Alberta's CIS, EHR, EMR, CII and CPAR help to defragment the health information space; bringing continuity to Albertans' experience of healthcare.

• FAQ: Evolving Alberta Health Information Landscape

Connecting for Continuity

Continuity of Care is about a patient and provider healthcare experience that is coherent, connected, coordinated and consistent with patient goals.

Connect Care will go a long way towards bringing continuity to healthcare in Alberta. Its integrated clinical information system (CIS) will replace most of the >1,300 health information systems currently in place across Alberta Health Services (AHS) and affiliated organizations. When fully implemented in late 2022, the CIS will be used by all providers where AHS is accountable for the record of care.

A variety of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) facilitate primary and specialty healthcare where Connect Care is not the record of care. Without ways to bridge these information spaces (CIS and EMR), continuity is broken.

One bridge is provided by Alberta's provincial Electronic Health Record, Netcare, which aggregates key health information and makes it available to authorized providers. Netcare is improved when Connect Care deploys because it gains a wider range of information from a single, standards-based, CIS source.

Another bridge is provided through "eDelivery" of health information from Connect Care and Netcare to Alberta EMRs. This too is improved with Connect Care. More information in a more consistent format is easier for EMRs to capture and organize.

Two new initiatives promise even better connections. AHS, the Alberta Medical Association and Alberta Health are promoting two-way health information sharing between EMRs and Netcare through "Community Information Integration" (CII) and a "Central Patient Attachment Registry" (CPAR). These allow patients to be linked to a medical home, and for that home to share information with Netcare. The CII will extend sharing to include the CIS in 2020 and CPAR will both inform and be informed by what happens where Connect Care is the record of care.

Working together, Alberta's CIS, EHR, EMR, CII and CPAR help to defragment the health information space; bringing continuity to Albertans' experience of healthcare.

• FAQ: Connect Care outside Connect Care