When Lakeridge Health Critical Care physician and Anaesthesiologist Dr. John Maybee realized his patient needed urgent, additional care at Scarborough Health Network (SHN), instead of reaching for a paper chart to send with the patient, he logged in to the Epic clinical information system.
SHN and Lakeridge Health are among seven partner hospital organizations that introduced Epic on December 3, providing patients across the Central East Region of Ontario with a single, unified digital health record.
“Epic has ushered in a new era for the way care is delivered and experiences like the transfer of this patient are evidence of this tremendous change,” said Dr. Maybee. “This patient required transport via our partners at Ornge Transport Medicine and her medical history, test results, and medication records were easily accessible in real time to both the transport team and team waiting for her at SHN.”
Dr. Randy Wax, Lakeridge Health Critical Care and Ornge Transport Medicine physician, who accompanied the patient with paramedics in the critical care transport ambulance that day, has also witnessed the many benefits of Epic since the system went live.
“Epic has provided health-care teams with standardized tools and processes that allow them to better collaborate and make the best possible decisions about an individual’s treatment,” Dr. Wax shared.
Dr. Martin Betts, Chief of Critical Care at SHN, added: “Thanks to Epic, our team was able to review all of the patient’s information while she was en route to SHN. From her medical records, such as key clinical data and health history, we had all the necessary information to provide her the highest quality of care as soon as the transport team arrived.”