Valley Manor Long Term Care facility in Barry’s Bay has begun to work with a new electronic clinical system which will provide improved access for staff and residents to their healthcare records. On February 3, key staff from the Manor and its healthcare partners received their first training session as SUPERUSERS of Clinical Viewer. Trisha Sammon, CEO of Valley Manor, told The Current, “I don’t envisage us going live with the system until the fall but we’ve had the first training session. The SUPERUSERS team of about eight people will be trained by Clinical Viewer themselves. Then we are going to provide training to the rest of the team.” Shown above are Valley Manor SUPERUSERS from left: Trisha Sammon, CEO; Gail Yantha, Director of Care; Marilyn Glofcheskie, HR/Office Co-ordinator; Kelly Dombroskie, Pharmacy Technician Lorraine’s Pharmasave; Adam Zahn, Accountant; Lynn Shulist, Unit Clerk; Michele Franklin, Direct Care Nursing Co-ordinator; Tara Carpenter, Nursing Admin Assistant; Chantel Brown, CQI/Nursing Co-ordinator (photo submitted).
Sammon explained that Clinical Viewer will reduce a lot of wait time and provide a one-stop shop for information for both clinical staff, and for residents and family members. Sammon said Clinical Viewer provides a secure, web-based portal with real-time access to digital health records including:
- hospital visits
- lab results
- dispensed drugs
- diagnostic images
- home and community care information
Clinical Viewer is a web-based system with extremely high security. Residents are not required to opt in to the system as they or their relative with Power of Attorney must give consent, but Sammon said, “It’s in their best interests to do so because it speeds up the process for healthcare, reduces cost and makes everything much more efficient.” The resident or family member must apply for access to Clinical Viewer. This two-pronged approach allows Valley Manor staff as well as residents or family members to have seamless access to all relevant information. She explained that Valley Manor’s Privacy Officer will monitor the system with ongoing audits to ensure the security of residents’ healthcare information.
“Because we have such incredible partnerships, although most of the team members are from the Manor we have links to pharmacy, hospital, home care, labs, etc. as well,” said Sammon. The SUPERUSER team members will receive training as a group once a month. They will roll out the training to all clinical staff at Valley Manor, but not to housekeeping and dietary staff. According to Sammon, Valley Manor is one of the first long term care facilities in Eastern Ontario to “jump in with both feet” and train on Clinical Viewer. “It’s another footstep to growth. By the time we get into our new home, we will be well-versed, skilled and seasoned on the process. For example, we recently divided our dining room into two to provide one meal service as a step to what will happen in our new home. We started it here and by the time we get there, everybody will be trained and ready to go. It’s one more thing off our list of change and training.”
The system was announced by the province in 2016 with initial roll-out in the Greater Toronto Area and South West Ontario. Clinical Viewer is an electronic health information system specifically for long term care facilities. This contrasts with EPIC, the electronic health record system for acute care, that was introduced at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in 2019. Sammon said both systems, while separate, are able to communicate with each other, thus providing seamless access to information.
