Unity Health prepares for new EHR go-live

TORONTO – On November 30, 2024, Unity Health will launch its new electronic patient record (EPR) system, transforming communication and information sharing between patients, families and their care teams. Called Project Connect, this major clinical transformation project will improve the way that clinical teams deliver care and empower patients to play a more significant role in their care journey.

The new system is powered by Epic Systems and was informed by over 500 staff, physicians, patients, and patient/family partners who sit across several work groups and advisory councils. These groups are making sure the system is designed to meet the needs of Unity Health patients and teams.

Caroline Assouad, an EPR applications specialist inpatient with a background in nursing, is working with clinicians in the obstetrics departments at St. Michael’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Health Centre to ensure their Epic module, called Stork, meets their workflows and needs prior to go-live.

“We need to build one system, so harmonization of policies, order sets and workflows across the organization is key,” said Assouad, who meets with clinical experts to review the module and then edits it to fit their specific needs. “I really enjoy the sort of problem solving that building the system requires.”

At Providence Healthcare, where most clinical and corporate processes are paper based, this project marks a major change in practices and workflows.

It’s a lot of work, said Olga Krasik (pictured), a clinical nurse educator at Providence, but it’s also really exciting. “The new EPR system will relieve nurses of more of the administrative burdens and give them more time to do what they do best – provide excellent patient care,” said Krasik.

Across Unity Health, clinicians say they’re looking forward to seamless information sharing with patients and fellow clinicians, whether they’re sharing laboratory test results, diagnostic images or medication information. The ease of information sharing also promises to improve patient safety.

“Clear, automated tracking of medication, treatments and diagnoses allows everyone on a patient’s care team to obtain the same information,” said Krasik. “It’s a great way to help us reduce the number of potential errors.”

Alina Lalani, a clinical pharmacy specialist and leader at St. Joseph’s, said that while communication and information sharing within each site will improve, the new system will also make it easier to seamlessly transfer patients between sites.

“The current practice for transfer of information is to download and share our documentation which is labor intensive and not always consistently done,” said Lalani. “Epic will allow seamless conversations between our teams across sites which will reduce our workload overall.”

Though Project Connect is a clinical transformation project, it will also transform processes for some corporate and support services teams. For instance, the Patient Transport teams at Unity Health will be able to receive transport requests on their mobile devices, eliminating the need for colleagues to monitor a central intake email and dispatch team members upon request.

“This improvement will lead to quicker responses to patient needs and smoother overall operations,” said Punya Ross, manager of environmental, patient food and transport services at Providence. “It’ll give us more time to focus on what’s most important – patient care.”

More information about Project Connect is available on the Unity Health Toronto website.