The EMR Phase 2.1 project’s Design, Build and Validate workshops are approaching completion, meaning key decisions are currently being finalised for the new modules that will become part of our EMR.

With roughly 13 months until Go-Live, the project team is now in the middle of Sprint 6 (of eight) and the results of hundreds of hours of workshops are now coming to light when the project team are able to demonstrate the solution to the organisation.

Here is a small example of the work completed recently:

The Emergency Medicine and Access project stream has completed the first demonstration video for the Phase 2.1 project, with the team’s clinical informatics nurse and medical officer introducing FirstNet and providing a demonstration of key Emergency Department LaunchPoint functionality.

FirstNet will replace the current EDIS system, as well as a number of paper forms, and has been built to support the needs of Western Health Emergency Department clinicians. You can view the demonstration video here.

The EMA team are also finalising documentation and workflows for the Western Health ACE team, Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug clinicians, Emergency Department Allied Health and Pharmacists.

The Specialist Clinics team has been developing workflows for the management of patients who fail to attend or cancel appointments, including communication from clinicians to clerical staff on the plan for these patients.

Workflows to view the clinical patient list (also known as the Cerner Ambulatory Organiser) have been finalised, including identifying when a patient has arrived, is currently being seen by the clinician or has completed their consultation.

The team has also finalised the design for information available to clinicians when looking at a patient list, such as the ability to view information on consultation type (e.g. Face-to-face, phone, video), interpreter requirements and Medicare eligibility.

In the Women’s and Children’s project steam, engagement with the division has increased in the past month, including more clinical stakeholder input at the workshops and the commencement of regular meetings with Newborn Services and Paediatric stakeholders to update them on the project.

A regular time has also been created in the Maternity Education calendar to commence midwife education sessions by providing a demonstration of the various features of the new EMR, and a chance for questions to be asked.

The team is making strong progress on the design of specialty mPages for Women’s Health, including Antenatal, Labour and Birthing, Postnatal, Mum and Baby, Partogram and Gynaecology

The Cancer Services team is developing the Oncology Chemotherapy Day Unit Referral form, which will allow Oncology/Haematology consultants in clinics to directly document referral information into the patient’s Electronic Medical Record. This will ensure that documentation is complete and visible for multiple clinicians involved in the patient’s care.

Clinicians using the PowerTrials solution will be able to be notified by Message Centre that a patient enrolled in a trial has been admitted to the hospital, allowing for quicker identification of these patients and prompt clinical care while minimising protocol deviation.

The ICU and Critical Care team held a number of Infusion Suite sessions in February to cover technical troubleshooting as well as nursing and pharmacy workflows. These sessions saw the successful completion of connectivity testing, and Infusion test pumps are now located at both Sunshine and Footscray sites to allow the teams there to continue to troubleshoot issues and work through workflows.

The team recently presented the Cerner Critical Care module to the Senior Medical Staff (Intensivists), providing a short overview of the main features and a closer look at the transfer medication reconciliation tool. The team is hoping to continue this engagement, providing further overviews and demonstrations with a chance to ask questions.

Finally, the Perioperative and Anaesthesia project team has commenced testing of the validated workflows to ensure they are performing in the EMR as expected. They have also finalised the Item Masterfile for theatres, which will allow clinicians to quickly select specific equipment to be added to their preference cards.

The workshops will conclude in early June, and extensive testing of the validated EMR solutions is now taking place and will continue for the rest of the year.