Really big mental health and addiction pilot project

NEWS RELEASE

NORTH EAST LOCAL HEALTH INTEGRATION NETWORK

******************************* Four LHINs partner on mental health and addiction pilot project

‘Doorways’ to information means better care for patients

Four of Ontario’s fourteen LHINs are working together with Ontario’s Community Care Information Management (CCIM) leads to establish a portal for service providers to securely share and access accurate health information electronically.

The project entitled, “Doorways - Strengthening connections between providers and clients” is being piloted for mental health consumers and health care providers.

It is funded by eHealth Ontario and is part of the Ontario government’s eHealth agenda.

The North East LHIN is leading the project with full participation from the North West, Champlain and North Simcoe Muskoka LHINs.

Three hospitals are providing supporting infrastructure, including; The Ottawa Hospital, Hôpital régional de Sudbury Regional Hospital (HRSRH), and Sault Area Hospital.

The pilot project allows assessment information to flow with patients as they move across health care settings to get the care they need.

The technology facilitates a common understanding of a patient’s needs and helps to improve the continuity of care across providers.

Authorized health service providers will have access to assessments from one single access point for a patient when determining treatment and care.

This LHIN-directed initiative is expected to help deliver enhanced health care capabilities to the providers and their patients; while also informing broader regional e-health portal planning for the LHINs.

Quotes

“This pilot will provide the ‘proof of concept’ that we can build on for an electronic health record,” adds North East LHIN CEO, Louise Paquette. “This information sharing tool will provide a secure single point of access for multiple pieces of information while upholding client privacy.”

“Building an electronic health record becomes closer with each project of collaboration and consolidation of information that can be accomplished,” adds Rodney Burns, CIO, North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN.

Participants in the Erie St. Clair pilot are already finding benefits from the Integrated Assessment Record (IAR).

“This pilot offers not only information through a single access point, it allows us to see trends in care and episodes which is extremely valuable in serving this community of clients,” states Tamison Doey MD, chief of psychiatry Hôel Dieu Grace Hospital and adjunct professor and program coordinator, child and adolescent psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. *******************************