St. Joe's goes digital with Dovetale
In the early morning hours of December 2nd, 2017 St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) will join ranks with the top 7 per cent of Ontario healthcare providers who have adopted cutting-edge systems for digitizing health information. The software designed by EPIC is used in many of the world’s leading hospitals. St. Joseph’s named the system “Dovetale” to convey the joining of a patient’s story with technology to provide one source of information for all members of a health care team.
Dovetale delivers state-of-the-art record management, improves the safety of patient care and enhances the work of those caring for patients by granting instant updates to medical histories and real-time diagnostic information. Clinical staff will have at-the-bedside access through handheld devices, tablets and laptop computer stations on wheels. File folders, loose leaf paper and hand-written notations will be a thing of the past.
Video: Learn about what patients and family members can expect now that St. Joe's has gone digital with Dovetale.
iPhones will replace traditional pagers for porters: In turn, patient transfers for diagnostic testing will be easily communicated via an iPhone app; nurses will use the Photos app to document the healing process of patient wounds.
“St. Joseph’s was founded on providing high quality, compassionate care to those who are unwell. We have a responsibility to uphold that legacy by adding to it the best available technology to strengthen our standard of care and enhance the other key elements of our mission, research and education in a safe and secure way,” said Dr. David Higgins, President, SJHH.
Dovetale will further St. Joseph’s research capabilities by simplifying data collection and collation, which in turn will bring findings into practice more rapidly. It will also expand St. Joseph's research community linking it to a network of global health leaders that include The Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, organizations that have also selected EPIC as their digital system of choice. Patients, clinicians and learners will reap the benefits of this new avenue for shared knowledge.
“Not only do they share documents and information, they share thoughts about improving health care. They share challenges,” said Dr. Chris Hayes, Chief Medical Information Officer, SJHH.
“You can connect with people at all these different healthcare sites who have EPIC and say, ’How did you address this issue? What process did you use?’”
For more information, visit our website stjoes.ca/dovetale