Media Release
Innovative new software will improve patient care and flow at Grace Hospital
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Grace Hospital is currently in the final testing-phase of a dynamic new bed-management software system (Oculys) that will dramatically impact patient care, Health Minister Sharon Blady announced today.
“Oculys is the future of patient flow,” said Minister Blady. “This new tool will put vital patient data into the hands of our health care team in real time, allowing them to better manage their facility and ultimately provide even better care to patients.”
The Oculys platform brings together key information including Emergency wait times, in-patient admissions, discharges, bed availability and much more into a simple data set that provides a real-time status update of all key areas of a facility. This information is then used to accommodate patients in the most appropriate settings, either through admission to hospital or short stays in emergency departments, and address any issues that arise from the moment they are identified.
“Oculys provides a snapshot view of activity in our facilities at any given time,” said Lori Lamont, vice president of interprofessional practice and chief nursing officer for the WRHA. “We will be able to identify and address issues with patient access to our facilities in real-time and it will improve our ability to admit patients into hospital (out of the emergency department) more quickly.”
The Oculys system will be an important tool for the WRHA as they address patient access to emergency departments, community resources, and admission to hospital. The region has recently developed a Patient Flow Implementation Team that is led by Ms. Lamont and will apply important progress made and processes identified at facilities like the Grace Hospital, throughout the region as a whole.
Examples of changes being made to hospital processes include: improving teamwork and communication within the emergency department and with other parts of the system; having home care workers available seven days a week to emergency departments; working to apply an over-capacity protocol to all WRHA emergency departments and programs; tracking all patients to reduce unnecessary waits during their stay in hospital, especially in the emergency department; and providing time-based targets for physician consultation and eventual discharge for every patient.
Grace Hospital has been selected as the test site for Oculys and has been working for several months on the implementation. It is currently operational and in the final testing phase with a proposed launch in early February. The software will be rolled out into other hospitals following the completion of the testing phase at Grace Hospital.
“We are pleased to have been selected as the pilot site for Oculys,” said Kellie O'Rourke, Chief Operating Officer for Winnipeg West Integrated Health & Social Services (including Grace Hospital and Access Winnipeg West). “The testing is going extremely well and I am confident that this new technology will assist us in managing effective flow through our programs and services.”
