So far so good about midway through upgrading Bluewater Health’s system for storing and sharing patient information.
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“It’s been a huge undertaking (and) the Bluewater Health team I have to say has been phenomenal,” said chief executive Paula Reaume-Zimmer.
Staff are training and visiting other area hospitals, where the incoming Oracle Cerner hospital information system is in use, she said.
“We had the fortune of following our four peer hospitals,” Reaume-Zimmer said about hospitals in Chatham-Kent, Leamington and Windsor already on the system.
“They have had a very well-scripted road map and we’re on track,” she said.
The switch is dubbed e-VOLVE, a moniker devised for other hospitals’ upgrades years ago, Reaume-Zimmer said.
“Two hospitals went together,” so Bluewater Health’s is considered e-VOLVE phase four, she said.
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Bluewater Health considered the HIS upgrade for about 10 yearsaim prioritized it after a cyberattack detected in October.
The upgrade, which started in March, is expected to cost about $40 million, Reaume-Zimmer said.
Some milestones so far include network assessment, approving project and change management plans, and other preparatory work getting the new system ready to switch on in four months, she recently told Bluewater Health’s board.
“We’re moving along quite well,” she said.
Bluewater Health’s Meditech system was restored “to the fullest that we are planning,” after the cyberattack, given the impending switch, she said.
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