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Clinical & Systems Transformation (CST)

This past year in patient quality and safety affirmed that our patients and residents’ well-being is always worth taking to the next level.

CST Project Readiness Gains Momentum at Providence

Throughout the past year, Providence Health Care was actively engaged in the Clinical & Systems Transformation (CST) project – a key strategic priority for the organization.

From March 2017 to March 2018, the project held sessions to design and build the Cerner solution and validate end-to-end workflows and clinical content of the system.  Clinicians, providers and staff from across Vancouver Coastal Health, Provincial Health Services Authority and Providence assisted and informed design solutions for 18 teams, including for such clinical areas as Emergency, Acute Care, Ambulatory, and Surgery. Providence provided close to 130 individuals, accounting for over 20 per cent of the representation across the all health organizations involved.

Providence was also an active participant in the first activation of CST at Coastal sites, Lions Gate Hospital and Squamish General with over 20 Providence staff and six physicians stepping up to become Peer Mentors and Physician Champions to support the CST go-live on April 28, 2018. This number included Providence leaders who participated in other supporting roles – from cut-over, to go-live floor support and emergency operations centre leadership. These staff, physicians and leaders will bring back a vital understanding of CST Cerner and lessons learned that will improve Providence’s planning as we move forward with implementing and activating CST in 2019.

A number of clinical and technical readiness projects are currently underway to prepare Providence for the groundwork practices, processes and technologies that will become the new standard at the organization. These include the automated unit dose dispensing project, medication reconciliation at discharge, the Wi-Fi project, and the desktop transformation project (DTP). these readiness projects now will  support adoption by reducing the amount of change felt when CST goes live across Providence.

Additionally, our readiness planning includes: understanding current-state practices, people, locations, devices and requirements; undertaking a stakeholder and device assessment; and initiating a gap analysis  to understand clinical and system differences between the current Cerner solution build and net new components required in time for go-live. The next year promises to be a busy, exciting and critical one, as we proceed to make CST a reality at Providence with our health care partners!