Clinical System and Transformation (CST) is coming to VCH-Vancouver in mid-2020 and VPSA is working to help you prepare. Physicians have many questions about Cerner and how it will affect their work. Several of those issues were raised during the October 8 CST demonstration presented in collaboration with VCH.
“We’re six weeks out from St. Paul’s Hospital go live so it’s an exciting time for us,” noted Dr. Eric Grafstein, CST chief medical information officer, prior to the workshop. “There’s a lot of nervous energy. CST will truly transform the way care is provided and how physicians interact with patients.”
“Most of your training will happen three months out so there will be less chance of forgetting how things work before CST is implemented,” added Dr. Vinay Dhingra, CST physician lead for VCH-Vancouver. “Coordinating physicians’ schedules for training is a tremendous amount of work. There will also be opportunities for physicians to make site visits to St. Paul’s as well as Lions Gate Hospital.”
CST Senior Manager Max Besworth led physicians through a high-level overview of Cerner’s functions, showing some the many linked applications available, and answering questions from the audience. He was able to confirm when physicians will be able to add and remove patients, the level of integration between Cerner and public versus private clinics, and ways to create custom lists and share these with other providers who are also giving care to your patients.
Once the system is live, physicians will be able to access electronic patient records from anywhere, including on your personal devices. All care providers will use common clinical and process standards including workflows, order sets, clinical guidelines, and integrated plans of care and patient records will be updated and shared electronically via a shared clinical information system. You will be able to enter medication orders and other instructions directly into the system; these will immediately become part of your patients’ records.
“I hadn’t taken the time yet to learn what Cerner will do and thought it was time I started getting my feet wet with the new IT we’ll have,” said family physician Dr. Judith Hammond, who was one of several VPSA members attending the October 8 workshop. “The demonstration gave me a big picture view of Cerner’s functions. And I was glad to hear about some of the changes, such as lab results coming to our inboxes. It sounds like there’s still work to do regarding collecting all the relevant information on patients—for example we still won’t be able to see most outpatient specialist consults—but I’m cautiously optimistic.”