December 16, 2020 – The 2020 Project Implementation Team of the Year Award (Team Award) goes to eOrder (The Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI) and Orion Health). The Project Implementation Team Award honours private and public sector team effort by recognizing a for-profit healthcare IT company and client team that has successfully implemented a health IT solution at a healthcare organization within the past 12 months.
The first of its kind in Canada, eOrder is part of the provincial EHR, HEALTHe NL. The solution is an eOrdering referral process that streamlines scheduling and speeds up patient testing in the province’s vascular imaging laboratory.
The project delivery approach required an agile methodology to facilitate the discovery of requirements with the vascular lab while coordinating the design and implementation efforts with various vendors. The close engagement of resources from the vascular lab enabled reviews of solution progress, and identification of gaps or issues impacting the potential use or process workflow. The team at the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI) worked collaboratively with vendors to put ideas on the table and address challenges in an effective manner. Despite the complexity of working with multiple stakeholders, all participants came together as a single team to meet the same objective.
The level of innovation needed to accomplish the eOrder solution required a spirit of cooperation. As new ideas surfaced, merits and challenges were discussed between teams. Rapid prototyping ensured the vascular lab’s resources were used effectively to communicate areas that work well and ones that needed adjustments. User feedback was always given with the intent to better understand patient and clinician needs before jumping to conclusions or technical solutioning.
The collaborative spirit of all stakeholders was a key in driving the solution delivery. There was a high level of satisfaction for providers at both ends of the workflow (those who place order requests, and those at the lab, processing and performing tests).
eOrder has been live since November 2019. The vascular team uses it for all aspects of managing test order requests, scheduling and patient preparation. After four months, 100 per cent of orders have been processed by the system. The feedback from the lab and clinicians submitting requests has been extremely positive, highlighting the ease of use, access to valuable information and timely management of test orders.
eOrder incorporates many innovative functions, including an automated order prioritization based on clinical guidelines, real-time scheduling of tests, and inclusion of relevant data in orders, thereby improving decision making and test preparation. eOrder significantly reduces the time it takes from order submission to testing and reduces the overall number of tests a patient requires. The old process required orders be submitted via fax. However, with eOrder, physicians can access a rapid electronic scoring system that independently assesses and validates order urgency. This represents an important movement away from fax-based referrals and supports the secure transfer of patient information.
eOrder is a considerable win for Newfoundland and Labrador’s eHealth strategy and helps meet the needs of growing patient volumes, benefiting patients and their circle of care. It leverages provincial investments previously made in HEALTHe NL and the scheduling tool, and simplifies life for clinicians.
