Your Stories

DOC Talk: Dr. David Bayfield

Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), Dr. Bayfield, offers insight on the move to a digital healthcare environment at GBGH. 

Please tell us 2-3 sentences about you as a physician!

I have been an Emergency Department physician at Georgian Bay General Hospital for more than 20 years.  I have had the privilege to serve as the Chief of Emergency Medicine and Medical Director for the Emergency Physician Group.  But, for the past 2 years, I have been working in an exciting new role as our hospital’s first Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) with the CARE4 project.

What is CARE4, and what does a Chief Medical Information Officer do?

CARE4 is a multi-million-dollar investment in the enhancement of our electronic health record (EHR), and a partnership between 4 hospitals including Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), Headwaters Health Care Centre (HHCC) and Collingwood General & Marine Hospital (CGMH).

As a CMIO, I essentially act as a bridge between the clinical services and the IT department within our organization.  In the context of implementing a new EHR like Expanse, my role involves leadership in the design, build, and implementation of the new system.  Purchasing the Expanse software is like buying the blueprints for a house, which is not the same as getting a fully built house – there is still a tremendous amount of work to do putting it together so that it works properly at your particular site.  To do this, our physicians have been working hard to develop hundreds of clinical order sets and develop efficient, standardized documentation templates to facilitate patient care.  My job also involves overseeing physician training and making sure that all physicians are ready for success when we Go Live in 2021.

How is an electronic medical record going to improve the health and lives of patients in our community?

Meditech Expanse will allow us to eliminate countless paper-based systems and processes, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of the care we provide.  This will reduce the number of errors that we make when transcribing orders, and allow us to monitor the care that we are providing in real time to make sure we are delivering the best, evidence-based care all the time.

As a web-based platform, patients will have one chart, accessible within all four partner hospitals, improving communication and promoting efficient use of lab testing and diagnostic imaging.  Unnecessary, repetitive testing will be a thing of the past among the four partner hospitals.

I believe that Expanse has the potential to significantly improve the care we deliver at GBGH in multiple ways and hopefully, simultaneously, improve the day-to-day workflows of clinical staff. My personal goal as CMIO is to do everything I can to make sure the new system delivers on these ambitious promises.

How can the community support this exciting change for GBGH?

This is a significant investment for GBGH, and we need nearly $1-million in devices and technology to support the new systems.  We are looking to our community to help with the purchase of bedside scanners, label printers, portable workstations, tablets and dictation microphones, to name a few.

To learn more about the CARE4 project, and Meditech Expanse, click here or contact the Foundation office (foundation@gbgh.on.ca, 705-526-4483).

 

Michael Thor

“One day I was healthy, and two days later my entire world was turned upside down.”
~ Michael Thor

When Michael Thor arrived at Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) suffering from severe stomach pain and a rapidly increasing fever, he knew that there was something seriously wrong. But he never expected that a CT scan would show he had a perforated bowel and needed immediate life-saving surgery.

“Everything moved so fast,” recalls Michael of his shocking diagnosis. “Dr. Sacks, my surgeon, came in and told me that my temperature was going up. I was going into septic shock and there really wasn’t a lot of time. I had to have surgery and I needed to do it right now. She said she could get her surgical team assembled within an hour.”

“I had a temperature of 106 degrees by then and hospital staff was packing my body in ice and giving me morphine for the pain. I was kind of out of it with the pain meds, but my wife Sarah was in shock and deeply worried. She asked Dr. Sacks if she would recommend this surgery if it was her husband. And Dr. Sacks told her, ‘Absolutely. You don’t really have a choice. This surgery needs to happen now.’”

With no time to spare, Michael underwent an emergency six-hour surgery while Sarah anxiously waited for news.

“The infection was worse than Dr. Sacks thought,” says Michael. “She estimated the surgery would take two hours, but the infection was so bad, that it took six hours and they had to remove 2.5 feet of my bowel. I will never be able to thank Dr. Sacks enough for assembling her team so quickly and performing the surgery. They saved my life! And the nursing staff that took care of me, both in surgery and while I was recovering in the hospital, were absolutely exceptional. I am so profoundly grateful for the care that I received.”

Having lived in the community for 25 years, Michael and Sarah are long-time donors of the hospital and understand the importance of supporting their community.

“While I was in the hospital, I learned that GBGH could only perform one surgery at a time, because the surgical video tower in the second operating room wasn’t functional for most procedures,” says Michael.

“Sarah and I could not have imagined if I’d had to wait for surgery, or if someone else with a life-threatening condition had to wait while I was in there, so we decided to raise funds to purchase a second video tower,” says Michael. The Thors personally committed $10,000 to the project and nine friends and clients collectively contributed the other $70,000 for this essential operating room upgrade.

“Our hospital cares about you and in return we need to really care about our hospital. We need to have the best equipment for our doctors to perform surgery and care for our community.  I was lucky to have the care and surgery I needed within my community. I encourage everyone to get involved – in any way they can – to help our hospital. You never know when you or a loved one will need it.”