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).