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OTTAWA – Jan. 12, 2018 – Six health-care organizations, from Hawkesbury to Ottawa and Renfrew to Barry’s Bay, will soon become a regional hub for seamless, patient-centred health care using the Epic Health Information System. This digital network will have real-time access to common medical information, allowing health-care providers to make timely, informed decisions based on the most comprehensive data.

“Patients across the region need us all to be on the same page,” said Dr. Glen Geiger, Chief Medical Information Officer for the Epic implementation project. “This digital network will improve patient outcomes, positively impact population health, and fuel research and innovation.”

“Having health information at your fingertips helps save lives,” said Dr. Jack Kitts, CEO of The Ottawa Hospital, on behalf of the Atlas Alliance. “Having better information at their disposal will enable better decisions and more compassionate care as providers and patients partner work together for better care. We will become a true digital hospital network, and this digital experience will also lay the foundation for patient experience as we plan our new campus.”

Also, Epic’s “MyChart” function will allow patients to be more involved in their care. This online tool will connect patients to their health-care providers, ensure timely access to their up-to-date medical records (such as diagnostic test results), allow them to message their doctors, get education material tailored for their condition, and more.

The Epic software platform allows hospitals and health-care systems to access, organize, securely store and share patient medical records. Epic’s applications support workflows for patient care, including registration and scheduling; clinical systems for doctors, nurses, emergency personnel and other care providers; systems for lab technologists, pharmacists and radiologists; and billing systems for insurers.

The Atlas Alliance is made up of Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, Renfrew Victoria Hospital, and St. Francis Memorial Hospital (in Barry’s Bay), The Ottawa Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital Academic Family Health Team, and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

The system will “go live” for all medical providers in each of the six partner organizations simultaneously in June 2019. Then, the Atlas Alliance will join hundreds of hospitals in Epic’s global network. This will give the partners access to the knowledge, research and best practices of physicians and clinicians from the other hospitals, which include CHEO in Ottawa, SickKids and Mackenzie Health in the GTA, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Epic draws on the best practices of these health-care providers worldwide to continuously enhance the Epic system, enabling the Atlas Alliance members to connect to expertise across Canada and around the world to improve patient experience.

Implementing the Epic Health Information System supports the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care’s mandate to have a more interoperable health-care system that improves patient outcomes. The Atlas Alliance joins nine other Canadian health-care organizations that are using or implementing the Epic Health Information System.

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Media Contact:

Michaela Schreiter, Communications Coordinator
The Ottawa Hospital
General Campus
501 Smyth Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8L6
613-737-8899 ext. 77299
mschreiter@toh.ca

The Ottawa Hospital

The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada’s largest learning and research hospitals, with more than 1,100 beds, approximately 12,000 staff members and an annual budget of about $1.2 billion.

Our focus on learning and research helps us develop new and innovative ways to treat patients and improve care. As a multi-campus hospital affiliated with the University of Ottawa, we deliver specialized care to the Eastern Ontario region, but our techniques and research discoveries are adopted around the world. We engage the community at all levels to support our vision for better patient care.

From the compassion of our people to the relentless pursuit of new discoveries, The Ottawa Hospital never stops seeking solutions to the most complex health-care challenges.
www.ottawahospital.on.ca