'On the right path': Thunder Bay, Ont. hospital launches digital orders program

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is saying goodbye to handwritten doctors' notes and switching to digital orders in an effort to improve patient care, and make it safer.

"It's the road map to your stay here, so it's pretty important stuff," says Keith Taylor, the chair of the patient and family advisory council at the hospital in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The new system will see all the data about the patient and their treatment, from admission to discharge, entered into the computer.

The first conditions to be managed this way include hip fractures, knee and hip replacements, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and community-acquired pneumonia.

But the new system goes beyond a simple electronic record, said Taylor, explaining the digital orders also give health care staff access to an entire catalogue of information, including the best way to treat a particular illness or injury.

"It's tied in with quality best practices which science has proven, if you need a certain procedure, this is the best way, so that gets printed on the electronic order set," he said.

It makes the entire system more efficient, which translates to better outcomes, said Taylor.

"That's what we want. We want patients to come into the hospital and get the best possible care and get out of here feeling good and well, so this a big step on starting that journey," he said.

No more guesswork over handwritten notes

Moving away from using pen and paper to record doctors' orders is also a step "on the right path" in promoting a culture of quality and safety, because it helps to standardize the care patients receive, said Dr Gordon Porter, the hospital's chief of staff.

The new system takes away some of the guesswork because all the notes and orders aretyped into the computer.

"Sothere's no handwritten orders for these particular episodes of care which eliminates a lot of errors, including potentialmedication errors, and [mis]interpretation of orders because everyone can read them," said Porter.

As well, "digital order sets find the right balance between efficiency and accessibility. Physicians having increased and convenient access to standardized, evidence-based guidelines will help improve patient safety," Porter announced in a written release Wednesday.

The hospital is gradually switching to the digital quality-based procedure order sets over the next three years.

Project champions will be wearing green T-shirts on Fridays to symbolize their team approach to the success of the program.

The adoption and implementation of the digital, quality based procedure order sets was mandated and sponsored by Ontario'sMinistry of Health and Long-Term Care.