Helping staff make a smooth transition to the Connected Health Record
Training, guidance and support are intrinsic to move to new digital platform
Here’s what’s hard: Building the Connected Health Record (CHR), a highly complex digital platform that will give staff prompt access to updated health information about any healthcare user in CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
Members of the Change Management team: (from top) Emma Goyette, Jean-Olivier Caron, Caroline Lessard, Chantal Bastian, Andreea Sotrea, Céline Ablasou, Myriam Olmand and Caroline Bibeau. (Click to enlarge.)
And here’s what could be just as hard: Ensuring that staff feel they’ve received enough support to be willing to embrace the CHR.
Why the difficulty? Because change of any kind—along with the uncertainty of the unknown—can be unsettling for some people.
For this reason, a change-management team has been assembled to focus exclusively on supporting staff in the roll-out of the CHR, says Jean-Olivier Caron, Chief of Project Management and Business Partners in the CIUSSS’s Human Resources Department.
The CHR is well worth this special effort, Mr. Caron explains, because the new platform will simplify and streamline the way health data is recorded, stored, retrieved, displayed and shared in various facilities across the CIUSSS (including the JGH).
As a result, the CHR will contribute to the delivery of faster and more efficient care, while reducing the possibility of errors.
Change management is vital to any substantial project, Mr. Caron says, and this is why Human Resources has been called upon, since handling organizational change is a major aspect of the department’s expertise.
This careful preparation is necessary, since the CHR will soon be playing a key role in “Care Everywhere,” a broad-based approach to improving the quality of care throughout CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
With the emphasis on upgrading care “everywhere”, the CHR is ideally positioned to supply members of staff with essential information, no matter where they—or the healthcare users—happen to be located.
Mr. Caron notes that the CHR will also benefit staff in many other ways, including a reduction in their administrative burden. No longer will it be necessary to open multiple programs to get a complete rundown of an individual user’s health information. Instead, all of the relevant data will be found in the CHR.
To help ease the transition, Mr. Caron and his team are focusing on three crucial factors: communication, training and support.
Helping staff adjust to change
Jean-Olivier Caron is working with a diverse team of professionals who will help staff make the transition to the Connected Health Record.
- Andreea Sotrea, Workforce Planning Advisor
- Caroline Bibeau, Talent Acquisition Advisor
- Caroline Lessard, Training and Organizational Development Advisor
- Céline Ablasou, Senior Digital Health Project Manager
- Mark Biunno, Senior Digital Health Project Manager
- Emma Goyette, Senior Managerial Advisor, HR Business Partner
- Chantal Bastian, Trainer
Communication involves spreading the word as widely as possible to ensure that staff truly understand how the CHR will improve their workplace routines and how the quality of care will be enhanced.
In addition to JGH News articles like this one (for others, see the sidebar), informative emails will be sent out in the coming months, supplemented by a poster campaign and a dedicated Sharepoint with a QR code.
Members of staff at the JGH will soon also have an opportunity to explore a read-only version of CHR’s first module, the Patient Timeline. No data can be entered or altered in this practice module, but staff will gain a clearer sense of some of the CHR’s distinguishing features.
Training will begin at the JGH and will then progress to all CIUSSS sites. Once this happens, employees can be assured of receiving ongoing training and support. They will not be left to fend for themselves, Mr. Caron emphasizes.
In‑person help will be available from the trainers and from highly knowledgeable members of staff (known as super-users) in many departments and units.
More about the Connected Health Record
Interested in reading about the CHR in more detail? The following JGH News articles explore the major improvements that the CHR will bring to the safety of users and the daily routines of staff.
- Part 1 of a question-and-answer session about the CHR with Dr. Justin Cross, Chief Digital Health Officer for CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
- Part 2 of the interview with Dr. Cross.
- The role of Elliott Silverman, Associate Director of Digital Health, in developing the CHR.
- How Mike Shulha collaborates with clinical practitioners and staff.
- Protecting the confidentiality of users’ health information
- Relying on IT for technical support of the Connected Health Record
Their role is to provide explanations and to answer questions on the spot, as well as offering general guidance and support.
For Mr. Caron, this is “an exciting time professionally,” given the scale and scope of the project. Before joining the CIUSSS in 2019, he had worked on managing change in various Montreal companies in the private sector, and while the change was significant for each company, it did not approach the scale of the CHR.
“It’s so satisfying to know that my team and I can help staff make the transition to something that will improve the way they work, while providing a better quality of care,” he says.
JGH Foundation provides crucial support for the CHR
Developing the Connected Health Record, along with its many benefits for healthcare users, would not be possible without essential support from the JGH Foundation.
Donations can be made online to support any of the JGH’s programs and services.
Related Posts
