Quarterly Newsletter
July 2021
A Message from
PAUL AUDET, CEO

Hands Full

Like our member hospitals, 2020-21 has been a challenging year for TransForm. The pandemic that reshaped all of our personal and professional lives had a profound effect on the organization’s operations as well.

It’s no secret that go live was executed without the shoulder-to-shoulder support from Cerner we had hoped for, or that e-VOLVE training for thousands of front-line healthcare workers shifted from in-person to virtual.

What you may not be aware of is the ever-expanding scope of work IT and the folks in Supply Chain took on over the same period.

In addition to our ongoing hospital-based responsibilities, TransForm was tasked with preparing the St. Clair College facility in Windsor that delivered Pfizer vaccinations (and now the former Sears location at Devonshire Mall) – including securing the building, setting up the equipment, adding a network to support additional cameras and providing the booking tool for Long Term Care and Retirement homes to schedule staff.

TransForm was also selected to be the province’s delivery partner for the successful roll-out and adoption of eConsult in Erie St. Clair (ESC). eConsult is a secure, web-based tool that allows doctors or nurse practitioners timely access to specialist advice that often eliminates the need for an in-person specialist visit and helps to eliminate unnecessary wait-time and referrals. Uptake from our region’s specialists and primary care physicians have grown exponentially...
e-Consult -
A Pathway to Secure Specialist Advice
What is eConsult 

eConsult is a secure, web-based tool that allows doctors or nurse practitioners timely access to specialist advice. The tool often eliminates the need for an in-person specialist visit. Through an eConsult, your health care team is able to directly ask a specialist questions about your care, so that they can provide the appropriate care for you.

Through a secure, web-based tool, your health care provider is able to get the advice they need, often meaning there isn’t a need to send you for an in-person specialist visit. 

TransForm’s Role in eConsult

TransForm plays a key role in the implementation and adoption of eConsult to health service providers in the Erie St. Clair region. We specialize in enrolling specialists within Erie St. Clair. TransForm is proud to have launched over 12 key Base Specialist Groups which will allow easy access to submitting eConsults.

eConsult Benefits?

  • ACCESS: over 90 specialty services
  • FAST: Specialists respond to questions within 1 week, often as quickly as 2 days
  • NO COST
  • SECURE: eConsult meets all of the standards for privacy of communication between healthcare providers
  • EFFICIENT: In about two-thirds of eConsults, the doctor or nurse practitioner gets all the advice they need to treat you themselves

eConsult Team Members:

Darren Hopper, Change Management and Adoption Coordinator

Kim Fralick, Change Management & Adoption Coordinator
TransForm engaging with local Ontario Health teams to improve digital health tools
Anyone who works in healthcare knows how fragmented digital health tools can be. In fact, with so many stakeholders and unnecessary duplication, it is often referred to as a “digital health ecosystem”. While the implementation of Cerner is a game-changer for our hospitals and partners, much remains to be done in primary care and other community care settings. That’s why TransForm is engaged with our local Ontario Health Teams to support them as they develop and prioritize action plans to improve the patient and provider experience.
 
TransForm’s Wendy Wilson (and formerly Kyle Shafer) have been working closely with members of the Sarnia Lambton and Chatham Kent OHTs to identify specific action plans that drive improvements by closing gaps in the digital health space under the leadership of Paul Audet. Through a patient-focused approach, and working with different stakeholders from the community, TransForm’s team has helped make long-standing gaps clearer for the OHTs by exposing the specific impact these gaps have. For example, we know that e-Referral is a helpful solution, but it is not adopted by all providers. The work of this team has helped describe exactly how a patient experiences this gap. If all providers in the OHT users e-Referral, patients and their families would have access to all patient open referrals and appointment dates, and the primary care physician would know the date and status of their referrals – something that is impossible today.
 
Melissa Sharpe-Harrigan, Executive Transformation Lead at the Chatham-Kent Ontario Health Team, shares how critical TransForm’s support has been. “We know how important digital health is to patients and providers in the Chatham-Kent region. The CK-OHT partners are working to prioritize the specific digital health actions that would benefit our patients. Approaching them from a patient-centered or patient story lens, helps puts the needed work into perspective. Transform has been a key partner in this initiative."

 Re-Organization and Staffing Updates 
In case you missed it, the following joint message from Mazen Joukhadar, VP, Chief Information, Security and Privacy Officer and Lyn Baluyot, VP, Chief Transformation Officer was released May 18, 2021:

We think it is safe to say that it has been a very busy and interesting past couple of years for all of us. We started a massive regional project, which demonstrated how all our staff can effectively work together, as a regional team, collaborate with all our hospital customers and dozens of third parties, to deliver a very successful Hospital Information Systems Clinical Transformation. We had three practically flawless go-lives, in the middle of a pandemic! I would argue that we have the most complete and broad implementation of Cerner in Ontario. 
Everyone should be very proud of what we all achieved together. Take some time to reflect on that and also find some time to now take a break. While we may not be able to travel anywhere, taking the time to relax and not think about work is something we all deserve and TransForm leadership is looking to support everyone get some time away. 
So what is next? Prior to starting e-VOLVE, we made some minor tweaks to the organization. Now that e-VOLVE is moving into operations mode, we are formalizing our new organization for FY 21/22.

Staffing Announcements: 

Please join me in congratulating Bob Swiatoschik, Director of Information Technology for TransForm on his retirement, effective June 30, 2021. Bob has worked with TransForm nearly eight years and has been instrumental in developing the systems and processes to better service the IT requirements of our customers.
 
Please join me in congratulating Steve McPhedran, Technical Analyst on his retirement, effective June 4, 2021. Steve has supported the IT team through a variety of roles. Recently he was instrumental in the device deployment (over 10,000 unique items) across all hospitals for e-VOLVE, including managing our temporary warehouse at HDGH, and ensuring the quality of the products we delivered, both at the start of the go-lives and then during initial support phases. 

Please join me in congratulating Martin Heath, Technical Analyst on his next career opportunity, effective May 21, 2021. Martin was initially a technical support analyst and then took on a key role with e-VOLVE, delivering technical components such as the 724 DTV, peripheral device configuration and Capman. 

And I wish to thank Jane Fan for her tireless work generating reports for our hospitals and now as she pursues other opportunities. 

Please join us in wishing Bob, Steve, Martin, and Jane all the best as they move into the next phase of their lives and careers. 

Next we are ready to announce our re-organization plans. This re-org will be our first iteration based on current staffing and our current customer base. We do expect that over this fiscal period, we may see some changes due to our work with the OHTs and other ministry programs. That may require us to adjust the organization...
A reminder of this important message that was sent to all hospitals on May 27, 2021:
 e-VOLVE/TransForm Operational Support Mode 
Congratulations to our hospital partners on four successful go lives, amidst a global pandemic, no less! 

As we move out of the stabilization phase and transition to steady state operations, the level of support from TransForm/e-VOLVE is transitioning
as well. 



Effective Friday, June 4 at 2300h 

The end user support model for operations has been agreed to by all the hospitals and will take effect at 2300h on Friday, June 4. 

It is as follows: 

  • TransForm’s Regional Service Desk will operate Monday-Friday from 0700-2300h. 

Urgent issues (definition: patient care is at risk and there is no reasonable work around): The Regional Service Desk will contact the e-VOLVE/TransForm team to assign someone to assist. 

Non-Urgent issues: A Cherwell ticket will be assigned with a 24-48 hour response time - except on weekends and holidays, wherein the response time will be within 24-48 hours of the next business day. 

  • For issues After Hours/Weekends/Holidays: 

Urgent Issues: If it is after 11 pm. on weekends or on holidays and the issue is urgent, call after-hours support at 1-866-822-4521. If you call the Regional Service Desk, the phone message will direct you to call that number. 

Non-Urgent Issues: Leave a voicemail at ext. 7771 or 519-962-0021 , it will be answered the next business day. 

Remember – you still have access to Super Users on your Unit/in your Department, as well as access to Job Aids on eCOACH. 

User Access or Tap and Go Issues? 

TransForm will be available, through the Regional Service Desk, to respond to requests/issues related to user access and Tap and Go cards, Monday through Friday from 0700-2300h. 

New or replacement Tap and Go cards will be provided by the Hospital’s HR Department during their regular business hours. 
Here's What Our 
Customers Are Saying
Here's What Our 
Customers Are Saying
"Quick response to my question. Thank you!"

" Very friendly, helpful and efficient!"

" IT staff are always there for us. Thanks so much!"

"Extremely helpful."

"Fast response time."

"Good communication and quick ordering turn around time."

"Very appreciative of how you address everything and how quick."
Sometimes, employees go the extra mile and deliver a wow!

To help recognize these instances, TransForm introduced the Going the Extra Mile recognition program for TransForm employees.

Hospital members, TransForm employees and other customers can submit an online nomination based on the criteria below to recognize employees who have “gone the extra mile” in providing services.
TRANSFORM www.transformsso.ca