Ottawa healthcare providers opt for Epic

OTTAWA – Three Ottawa medical facilities will be implementing a new medical record system they say will allow healthcare providers to share and access patient records across a single network. The Ottawa Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital Academic Family Health Team and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute will be integrating their records with the Epic Health Information System.

The goal is that doctors will have all a patient’s information when they treat them, even if they are usually treated in a different hospital. “Patients across the region need us all to be on the same page,” said Dr. Glen Geiger (pictured), chief medical information officer for the Epic implementation project, in a news release.

The current system is about 25 years old. Epic is scheduled to go live in June 2019. The new system will cost about $87 million, and the cost will be shared amongst the facilities and with three other partners in Eastern Ontario.

Implementing the new record sharing systems is part of an Ontario Ministry of Health initiative to have hospitals implement digital information systems in clusters. The ministry wants hospitals to partner together to share costs of implementing new systems, but also to ensure efficient information sharing between the partnered organizations.

The three Ottawa facilities will be implementing the new system in tandem with Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, Renfrew Victoria Hospital, and St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry’s Bay.