Prescriber Roles

Most prescribers work within a primary care or specialty service and are well served by their assigned Connect Care department, role and user template. Their Connect Care login will be straightforward: their "department" will default to their usual choice, requiring only user name and password for a successful login.

Some prescribers will need to provide more information at login. They may require different user interfaces (e.g., emergency, operating room) at different times, and some Connect Care users additionally need to clarify both their role and who is ultimately accountable for the work they do in that role. This is particularly the case for prescriber trainees.

Multi-Role

Some prescribers work in two or more specialty areas that use different CIS modules. The emergency module (ASAP), for example, is not like the critical care user interface. If one needs to switch between different modules for different roles, then more than one "sub-template" needs to be added to one's Connect Care physician record.

Connect Care has made configuration changes for multi-role physicians and all trainees (who rotate through many roles throughout a year). Still, some multi-role physicians could be missed. Medical Affairs facilitates changes to physician roles and profiles. Physicians concerned about the role(s) assigned should request clarification or correction through their Zone Medical Affairs, who takes care of physician privileges and specialties.

Nurse practitioners with concurrent RN roles may have two records in Connect Care, an NP record and an RN record. These are distinct accounts with different securities due to scope. NP clinic appointments need to be scheduled to the NP record; if appointments are entered from the RN record, the NP will not be able to see appointments nor have NP functionality. To mitigate, see the tip sheet.

Multi-Site

Some prescribers see patients at more than one practice location. While one or more locations may use Connect Care as the record of care, one or more locations may be outside Connect Care and use a different health record. This can affect the best way to handle delivery of laboratory test results and clinical documentation. Connect Care is able to accommodate such complexities by associating more than one practice location with a physician record.

Connect Care provider look-up tools may show a provider name, and within it one or more practice locations (sites). In general, this option only appears where the user's choice may matter. The site name(s) and address(es) appear next to the provider name, and the appropriate practice context can be selected when choosing the provider.

Multi-Record

There are many workflows where users may select provider names. Examples include copying test results, clinical correspondence and referral information. For these workflows to be unambiguous, it is important that each provider have but one provider record and, therefore, appear only once in the pick-lists used to select providers for actions. In general, Connect Care follows a strict rule of one-provider-one-record.

There are some rare exceptions. Connect Care users may notice that a few prescribers are listed in the clinical information system (CIS) phone book (and associated look-ups) more than once. Some healthcare providers care for patients in more than one province, most commonly affecting Connect Care when physicians perform clinical duties in both Alberta and the Northwest Territories. The non-Alberta role is indicated by a two-letter provincial abbreviation in parentheses. Users need to take care when choosing a provider record to match the provider to the correct care context.