2017-07-12

Connect Care Technology Partner

After almost a year of evaluation – and consultation involving hundreds of clinicians, staff and patients – Alberta Health Services (AHS) has announced that Epic is the chosen vendor responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP) to help build the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS). The CIS provides the technology platform to enable Connect Care, an AHS-led initiative to transform healthcare delivery in the province. 

The RFP process was thorough and conducted with fastidious care. A first phase narrowed the field to 3 vendors felt most able to address the full range of AHS integration needs, with capacity to implement sustainably for an entire province. The second phase engaged hundreds more evaluators, site visits, reference reports and financial analyses to complement a deep dive examination of 24 functional domains and 4 areas. The results were consistent and clear, with strong agreement across domains, areas, regions, disciplines and experiences.

Epic started in 1979 and has grown to serve as the largest continuum-of-care digital health record provider for complex health care organizations like ours. Epic develops software to help people get well, stay well and prepare future generations to be healthier. 

Now that Epic has been selected as the preferred vendor, contract negotiations proceed while comparing an emerging understanding of our current state with a detailed assessment of what Epic has ready to go. The gap analysis will be informed by readiness assessments, strategic transformation analyses and listings of CIS capabilities prioritized for early attention. All this helps prepare for collaborative design and build, which begins fall 2017.

The Connect Care integration goal remains to migrate the majority of AHS clinical systems to the AHS Provincial CIS over the next 4-6 years. Existing systems will be kept functioning and current until ready for transition. Transitions will be guided cost-effectively, with support for AHS teams to safely prepare for changes.

Keep a close eye on the Connect Care web and SharePoint sites for the latest news.