From 8:00pm on Wednesday 28th April until 10:00am on Thursday 29^th April, Western Health will undergo a planned EMR downtime.

This downtime is necessary to deliver enhancements that should minimise the chance of future unplanned downtimes.

The EMR Business Continuity Plan will be used for the duration of the outage to ensure risks are minimised and there is clear communication at all stages.

Additional staffing resources will be deployed to assist with the downtime.

On conclusion of the downtime, most of the documentation completed during downtime will remain on paper in the patient’s folder. Certain information from the paper records will need to be transcribed into the EMR:

• Key information for new patients admitted on paper during the downtime (ie: allergies, alerts etc)
• Reconciliation of medication changes on paper during the downtime
• Medications administered & total volumes infused during downtime
• New lines & devices inserted during downtime
• Changes to MET criteria changes

The following resources are available to support preparation for the downtime:

Discipline specific EMR downtime WeLearn modules:

A short 10 minute module is available which provides a refresher on the steps to be followed in the event of a planned or unplanned downtime. When searching within WeLearn simply type ‘downtime’ to locate the relevant package or use the following direct links:

Nursing / Midwifery                  Medical

Pharmacy                                 Allied Health

EMR downtime training sessions for Nursing & Midwifery staff are being held on weekdays until Friday 23rd April

There are two sessions available each weekday, 1:30 – 1:45pm (15 mins) and 1.45 – 2:00pm (15 mins) – staff will only need to attend one session.

All sessions will be held via Zoom

• Zoom link: https://westernhealth.zoom.us/j/8418366702?pwd=TGNiM3QvOHp0R3UyUzNSbmdpNXVVZz09
• Zoom password: 56777

For extra sessions please contact the Digital Health Training Team – [email protected]

Paper copies of the forms below will be delivered to inpatient areas this week and are also available on the Downtime Procedures page of the Digital Health information site:

• Discipline specific action cards – a helpful resource to follow and tick off activities pre-downtime, during the downtime and on the day of uptime.
• EMR Recovery Checklist – details the steps to be taken when transitioning an existing inpatient from paper to EMR

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation as we prepare for and undertake this very important work that will significantly enhance the EMR at Western Health.

If you have any further queries regarding this planned EMR downtime please contact the Digital Health Team – [email protected]

Regards,

Natasha