GUELPH – North Wellington Health Care, Groves Memorial Community Hospital, and Guelph General Hospital have joined the South Western Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Repository Network (SWODIN).
That is a key step towards integrating electronic patient records for hospitals in Ontario, and eventually, throughout Canada.
Mohawk Shared Services Inc. will connect all hospitals in Local Health Integrated Networks (LHIN) 3 and 4 to the data centre housed in London, enabling caregivers to share diagnostic images and reports from hospitals across LHINs 1, 2, 3, and 4. Mohawk will manage the diagnostic imaging service on behalf of the participating hospitals in the Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand, Brant, LHIN (HNHB) and the Waterloo Wellington LHIN (WW).
Benefits of the repository include:
– secure, quick and easy access by clinicians and radiologists to a patient’s diagnostic imaging and reports, allowing them to diagnose regardless of patient origin and where the images were acquired;
– enhanced clinician collaboration and knowledge transfer, resulting in better treatment, fewer retakes, and a reduction in radiation exposure; and
– treatment plans developed through collaboration with specialists located in other communities.
“This system allows our rural facilities to link seamlessly with the large teaching centers in Hamilton and London as well as the many other community hospitals already on this repository,” said Jerome Quenneville, Wellington Health Care Alliance president and chief executive officer and chairman of the LHINs 3-4 Mohawk shared services advisory committee.
Mike Sharma, Director of Diagnostic Imaging at Guelph General Hospital, said, “Access to imaging procedures from other health care facilities will decrease the need to repeat examinations, which provides efficiencies to the system”.
The remaining hospitals in the two LHINs will be connected over the next year. By the fall of 2011, 100 per cent of images taken in the delivery of hospital-based health care for patients will be digitally stored and shareable among health care providers across LHINs 1, 2, 3, and 4.
“Guelph and Palmerston area residents will greatly benefit from having their diagnostic images available digitally because it will help speed up diagnosis and treatment,” said Richard Alvarez, president and CEO of Canada Health Infoway. “Across Canada, hundreds of millions of dollars in savings and efficiencies are being realized every year thanks to the investments made to digitize images such as X-rays, CT scans, and ultrasound.”
Greg Reed, president and CEO of eHealth Ontario, said “eHealth Ontario is proud to be an implementation partner on an initiative that advances health care delivery and benefits Ontarians. This is a perfect example of how collaboration within the health care system can deliver results that improve patient care, consistent with the government’s focus on access to care.”
Canada Health Infoway has provided $35-million and eHealth Ontario has provided $26-million in funding to support the transfer of diagnostic images and reports between various health care organizations in Southwestern Ontario. The project is part of the Ontario government’s ehealth work and Infoway’s vision for a pan-Canadian electronic health record system. Canada Health Infoway is a not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the development and adoption of electronic health record projects in Canada.
