Northern Healthcare Improved as Doorway Swings Open Today
Participating Health Service Providers
- CMHA – Thunder Bay
- St. Joseph’s Care Group
- Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
- Sault Area Hospital
- Board of Health for Algoma Health Unit
- CMHA – Sault Ste. Marie
- Counselling Centre of East Algoma
- North Shore Community Support Services
- Hôpital régional de Sudbury Regional Hospital
- Canadian Mental Health Association (“CMHA”) Champlain East
- CMHA – Ottawa
- Pembroke Regional Hospital Mental Health Services
- Sandy Hill Community Health Centre (“CHC”)
- The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
- Canadian Mental Health Association (“CMHA”) Champlain East
- CMHA – Ottawa
- Pembroke Regional Hospital Mental Health Services
- Sandy Hill Community Health Centre (“CHC”)
- The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
- Oaks Centre, Camillus
- CMHA – Simcoe
- Couchiching Family Health Team
- Enaahtig Healing Lodge and Learning Centre
- Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene
- Muskoka-Parry Sound Community Mental Health Service
- Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
- Alpha Court Non-Profit Housing Corporation
Pilot project goes live strengthening connections between providers and patients
The portal establishes a secure, single point of entry for providers to access a range of clinical and assessment information from any location electronically. Doorways will provide strengthened connections between providers and patients and is being piloted for mental health and addiction patients as well as health care providers and community service providers for these patients. This technology improves patient care by eliminating the need for patients to repeat information to each provider.
For the first time ever, the portal allows patient information to be shared between mental health and addiction service providers, regardless of where they are located. The portal is being piloted to a targeted group of organizations in each of the four participating LHINs. Specific health service providers were selected based on readiness, interest, and patient flow.
Doorways was established to improve provider productivity by reducing the time providers spend searching for patient information. It improves provider access to and flow of shared clinical information across the continuum of care, creating the ability for providers to access patient information remotely (i.e. hospital, clinic, community office) which results in improved decision making for patient diagnosis and treatment.
Doorways went live on November 22 with providers in the NSM and Champlain LHINs accessing the portal. Providers in the NE and NW LHINs begin accessing the portal today.
The project builds on CCIM’s new provincial IAR repository, originally piloted in the Erie St. Clair and the Central West LHINs earlier this year. The IAR provides a single point of entry to access and view patient information. It facilitates a common understanding of a patient’s needs and improves care planning as patients move across the health care system.
The participating organizations were clustered geographically within each LHIN to address the likelihood of a patient who moves between various providers along the continuum of inpatient, emergency and out-patient services. At least one hospital and one community mental health organization from each of the four LHINs were required to participate.
“Patients will now benefit from secure online access to important medical data,” says Laura Kokocinski, CEO, North West LHIN. “Creating Doorways makes the information sharing process for providers more efficient while upholding patient privacy, resulting in quality care that is both effective and accurate.”
The portal includes information from two standardized assessments: the Ontario Common Assessment of Needs (OCAN) and the Mental Health Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI-MH©). The portal safely and confidentially allows access to patient information for health service providers including: nurses, doctors, other practitioners employed by community support organizations, hospital emergency rooms, and in-patient psychiatric facilities.
Portals are a key element of eHealth Ontario’s strategy to make electronic health records available to Ontarians by 2015.
Twenty-two separate health service provider organizations are participating in the pilot including eight hospitals and 14 community agencies.
The portal will be operational through to the end of March 2011.
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Community Care Information Management
The strategic vision of Community Care Information Management (CCIM) is to provide seamlessly-integrated, community-based client care where all service providers can securely share and access consistent and accurate information electronically. CCIM consists of two streams and a number of projects to support the Community Care sector.
Sault Area Hospital
The Sault Area Hospital (SAH) is an acute care and specialty services hospital serving the District of Algoma focused on delivering quality, patient-centred care within available resources, collaborate with their partners in an integrated health care system and encouraging knowledge-sharing and teaching.
Local Health Integration Networks
The North East, North West, North Simcoe Muskoka and Champlain Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) are four of the 14 agencies created by the Province of Ontario in 2007 to plan, coordinate and fund regional health services. These services include hospitals, community care access centres, community health centres, long-term care homes, community support service agencies and community mental health and addiction services
eHealth Ontario
eHealth Ontario is the organization responsible for implementing the government’s ehealth agenda and creating an electronic health record for all Ontarians by 2015
- “Patients will now benefit from secure online access to important medical data,” says Laura Kokocinski, CEO, North West LHIN
Monday, December 13th, Community Care Information Management (CCIM), in partnership with the Sault Area Hospital (SAH), four Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) – Champlain, North East (NE), North Simcoe Muskoka (NSM), and (NW) – and eHealth Ontario, have completed the launch of the Integrated Assessment Record (IAR) health provider portal – Doorways.
