The Canadian province of Nova Scotia, in collaboration with Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) and IWK Health, has signed a new 10-year agreement with Oracle Cerner to implement an integrated electronic care record across the province for the more than one million Nova Scotians.
The modernization, known in Nova Scotia as “One Person One Record” (OPOR), is intended to provide clinicians easier access to real-time health information anywhere and allow healthcare workers to spend less time at the computer and more time with their patients.
OPOR will allow healthcare professionals at any Nova Scotia Health or IWK Health facility to access a patient’s complete, up-to-date information at any time.
“For years, healthcare professionals have been frustrated because they don’t have access to the patient information they need, to provide faster and better care for their patients,” said Michelle Thompson, Minister of Health and Wellness, in a statement. “It’s a big investment, but once fully implemented it can save time, provide more and better emergency care, reduce wait times for surgeries, cut down on duplicate and costly testing, and make Nova Scotia a more attractive option for healthcare workers.”
OPOR, which will start rolling out at hospitals and mental health and addiction facilities in two years, advances all the priorities included in Action for Health, the government’s plan to improve healthcare, by:
- supporting a centralized booking system to reduce surgical wait times
- providing paramedics with the ability to view patient health information on the way to an emergency
- giving family doctors, nurse practitioners and other providers supporting primary healthcare easier access to patient information
- connecting Nova Scotia Health and IWK mental health clinics and SchoolsPlus, which supports universal mental healthcare
- replacing legacy systems so new infrastructure projects can be designed with less space for records and more space for patient care
- giving continuing care teams access to results and treatments from residents’ hospital visits, so they can provide better care when the resident returns home.
OPOR will add features over time, including the ability for patients to easily access their own medical records.
“The availability of a single information system that supports our care providers in delivering safe, more timely, and connected services should improve the quality of care received by patients and families while making their journeys more seamless,” said Krista Jangaard, M.D., president and CEO of IWK Health, in a statement. The IWK Health Centre is a pediatric hospital and trauma center in Halifax.
Oracle Cerner said health professionals in acute-care facilities in Nova Scotia can use a digital closed-loop medication management process to help reduce prescribing errors, ensure allergy information is available, enable electronic prescription verification with pharmacy, and better documentation for auditing. This improvement to patient safety helps providers make sure the right medication is prescribed and given to the right patient, in the right dose, at the right time, and with the right documentation.
Oracle Cerner has worked with Nova Scotia’s health system for 30 years, providing laboratory and radiology information systems. Oracle Cerner will integrate biomedical devices from across the province into the patient's record – including vitals monitors, IV pumps, and fetal monitoring devices, as well as use voice recognition software to improve physician workflows and allow for fully integrated voice recognition across multiple devices and platforms.
In December, Ontario-based Niagara Health signed a 10-year agreement with Oracle Cerner to build a modern hospital information system that will serve all five Niagara Health sites and Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre.
The new hospital information system will allow Niagara Health and Hotel Dieu Shaver to replace paper-based records and outdated electronic processes with more modern, connected and accessible electronic health records. The project is expected to take about two years to complete. The new hospital information system is expected to launch in the fall of 2024.
