Well into our Connect Care journey, it is time to take stock.
We've successfully launched hundreds of sites with thousands of users using a powerful clinical information system (CIS) supporting patient care in diverse settings. We've seen widespread adoption of innovations like mobile-access and in-system dictation.
However, there are indications that we may need to do more to protect ourselves from potential digital health records harms (mostly identified pre-launch). Indeed, misuse of the Connect Care CIS could make it more difficult for us to quickly discover what is important in a patient's experience.
Connect Care continues a documentation quality improvement initiative (DQI). This started with background work to optimize charting tools, express provincial documentation standards, clarify documentation norms and find workflows that decrease clinicians' informational burdens. Early products of this work were evaluated with volunteers in late 2021 and then improved and implemented in 2022.
Wider DQI awareness is supported with a series of blogs, tips, FAQs, Manual update and StreetSmart Training modules. Documentation quality indicators can help front-line users benefit from more efficient and effective charting tools. These appear in minimum use and meaningful use dashboards.