Patients get more time with nurses, safer care, thanks to new feature in Connected Health Record
With the Vital Signs module, nurses no longer enter patients’ data manually into health records
With the launch on March 17 of an essential feature of the Connected Health Record, another major stride has been taken toward revolutionizing the way health information is recorded, retrieved and shared in CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
By relieving nurses and other clinicians of certain administrative tasks, the new Vital Signs module is enabling JGH nurses and other clinicians to spend more time with their patients.
In addition, by automating the transfer of data from vital-signs monitors to the CHR, the module is eliminating human errors that can occur when data is manually entered into the health records.
Of key importance is that Vital Signs was developed in close consultation with nurses, doctors and other clinicians. As a result of their insights, suggestions and requests, the CHR will be a practical, custom-built tool that responds to the needs of staff.
When fully implemented, the CHR will make a wide range of consistent and updated information about all CIUSSS healthcare users easily available to clinicians on a single digital platform that can be accessed at any network site.
This places the CHR in direct alignment with the CIUSSS’s broad approach to care, known as Care Everywhere. It states that staff must strive to achieve the right outcomes by delivering the right care at the right time in the location that’s most appropriate, safest and most convenient for healthcare users.
Since the CHR will eventually make a uniform set of data available to all CIUSSS clinicians, the health records will, in effect, follow users to any CIUSSS site where care is to be delivered.
When work on the CHR began in 2022, the project was described as the largest, most complex and most challenging that the CIUSSS had ever embarked on—a prediction that has since been realized.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of the CIUSSS, told the audience at the Vital Signs launch at the JGH that what they were inaugurating is much more than a new module.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, at the launch of the Vital Signs module of the Connected Health Record. (Click to enlarge.)
“It is a genuine innovation and a demonstration of what is possible when clinical vision, technology partnership and philanthropic commitment come together in one place,” he said.
“This is not a story about technology. It is a story about people: the patient who deserves the full attention of their caregiver, the nurse who deserves tools worthy of her expertise, and an institution ready to show the way.”
For now, the module is being deployed only at the JGH, along with training for the nursing teams. Their members are primarily responsible for using the vital-signs monitors most often to record basic indicators such as blood pressure, respiratory rate and heart rate.
Members of the remaining care teams, including physicians and allied health professionals, are receiving training resources to ensure they know how to view the new vital-signs information in the CHR.
By early July, the module will be up and running in most hospital units, except for certain critical-care areas, such as the Intensive Care Unit, which is slated for a deployment in a later phase of the CHR project. At some point, a roll-out to other CIUSSS facilities will also take place.
“I’m very proud of our Digital Health team—and everyone on staff who worked with us—for enabling us to take this important step as we near the full deployment of the CHR,” says Dr. Justin Cross, the CIUSSS’s Chief Digital Health Officer.
Members of the Digital Health team gather to provide support to users of the Vital Signs module of the Connected Health Record on the day of its launch.
“We’re building on the success and momentum that we’ve achieved so far, and we’re making good on what we said we would do: build the CHR into an indispensable tool to benefit the patients, clients and residents of the JGH and our CIUSSS.”
In addition to praising staff for their creativity and commitment to the project, Erin Cook, the CIUSSS’s Associate CEO, notes that bringing Vital Signs and the CHR to life would not have been possible without the support of the JGH Foundation and its donors. (See sidebar.)
“We’re deeply grateful to them for all of the financial backing that the CHR requires,” Ms. Cook says. “Our generous donors are making a clear and measurable difference to the quality of our care.”
Vital Signs is the second CHR module to go into service, the first being the Patient Timeline, which was launched in the fall of 2023 and gained recognition an award-winning, provincial pace-setter.
Although JGH staff were able to view a broad range of useful health information in the Patient Timeline, they could not enter new data into the CHR, explains Chantal Bastien, a former nurse who is among those training nurses to use the new module.
With the introduction of Vital Signs, she says, information will be recorded by the JGH’s smart monitors and, for the first time, will be transferred directly into the CHR. Since this digital information is centrally stored, clinicians will no longer have to waste time hunting for it on multiple platforms.
Previously, Ms. Cook adds, the manual transfer of data was not only a time-consuming activity, it increased the risk of incorrect data being accidentally entered into the records. As well, it deprived nurses of precious time they could have spent with patients.
According to Dr. Cross, a vital-signs module is not unique, in and of itself. In fact, a similar feature is commonly found in off-the-shelf software for generic electronic health records.
What makes Vital Signs special, he explains, is the input from staff that has led to the customized design of this particular module and the entire CHR.
As well, Dr. Cross says, by using Vital Signs, staff have a relatively simple and straightforward means of actively familiarizing themselves with the CHR.
“They will gain experience logging in, pulling up the patients’ charts and vital signs, and working with the data,” he says. “As an organization, this enables us to practice in a controlled manner. It also gets everybody using the system and subjecting it to a sort of stress test.
Your donation can help bring the CHR to life
More face-to-face contact between patients and staff. Heightened precision of patients’ health information. These are just two of the benefits the Connected Health Record is already providing in its early stages.
By collaborating with the JGH Foundation to bring the full CHR to life, you can play a role in enhancing the accuracy, efficiency and human element of outstanding treatment and care.
Lend your support by making a donation online or by calling 514-340-8251.
“As helpful as the Patient Timeline may be, it is a supplemental tool. That all changes with Vital Signs, which contains basic information that everyone always needs.”
Another significant aspect of Vital Signs, says Ms. Cook, is that it displays the data in such a way that allows clinicians to spot and monitor trends, “including the impending deterioration of a patient’s health.
“So, for example, if the patient’s breathing or heart rate accelerates, and if this pattern is sustained over a certain period of time, it may be an indication that something isn’t right—an early alert to possible trouble ahead.”
Farther down the road, Dr. Cross anticipates layering an AI algorithm onto the vital‑signs data “to warn us proactively as soon as something starts to trend in the wrong direction.
“It’s this sort of potential that makes the CHR such an important tool as we go forward.”
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