• IFTs to any facility: Prescribers transferring patients to any facility, now including Continuing Care and Supportive Living sites, must use the "Interfacility Transfer" navigator, which remains a tab within the “Discharge” activity. 

  • • Previously, transfers to Supportive Living facilities were done through the main Discharge navigator tab rather than the IFT navigator; as of Launch 8 (May 4), any attempted transfer to a Connect Care Supportive Living facility done through the main Discharge navigator tab will not work.

• IFTs to non-Connect Care facilities: The "IFT Orders Note" is now only required for IFTs to out-of-province acute care.

• Out-of-province IFTs: There is a new section in the IFT navigator for IFTs to out-of-province acute care (see the new tip sheet). 

• BPMH for IFT from Continuing Care: When admitting a patient from a Connect Care Continuing Care site, the “BPMH / Home Meds” screen on the Admission Navigator won’t allow you to enter home medications. Patients in a “Continuing Care” encounter do not require Medication Reconciliation in the usual way. See the tip sheet.

• IFT from ED to Connect Care - Transfer to Immediate Transition (IT) Bed: See the tip sheet and demo.

• IFT from ED to Continuing Care: See the new tip sheets for IFTs from ED to a Continuing Care site with an AHS pharmacy, or a Continuing Care site with an external pharmacy.

• Separating IFT Orders from Other Signed/Held Orders:

  • • Orders may be signed and held for a variety of reasons (e.g., IFT, upcoming surgery or procedure), and it is often appropriate for patients/clients to have multiple set of signed and held orders. 

    • When viewing and releasing signed and held orders, it is important to release only those orders that are intended for your context (place and time). IFT orders have a specific phase of care (instructions on when to release) attached to them. This can help differentiate IFT orders from other signed and held orders. 

    • Nursing can separate signed/held orders by phase of care to easily separate out IFT orders. To view signed/held orders by phase of care, nurses should select the view seen in this screenshot when in the "Signed Held" tab of the Orders activity.

    • Prescribers can also select the view mentioned above. In addition, when prescribers use the Admission navigator, there is a specific tab to "Restart from Previous Admission". This tab shows all orders that were present in the previous admission, and identifies the indicated action from the sending prescriber (continue or not order, based on the intentions of the sending prescriber) - see this screenshot. 

    • Questions? Use the Virtual Drop-In, or email ConnectCare.PatientMovement@ahs.ca.

For more information on IFT workflows, see the Interfacility Transfers section of this Manual.

• Internal vs. External Order BPA: Due to the difficulty for units within sites in knowing what ordering mode (internal vs. external) to use when placing a medication/lab/DI order, a new Best Practice Advisory (BPA) has been created to stop prescribers from using the wrong ordering mode. For example, if a prescriber is entering a medication order as an internal order for a unit that has an external (contracted) pharmacy, the BPA will fire to indicate that the external order mode must be used for that order.

• Nursing Awareness of New External Orders: To ensure that nurses and care managers are aware when new external orders have been entered, four new columns have been added to the Patient List. An icon will appear when new orders have been entered, and a sidebar report will provide a task list for the new orders. With this change, nursing communication orders no longer need to be entered for new external orders.

• Continuing Care Admission without Interfacility Transfer Orders: A Connect Care launch brings with it many new transfer workflows for both sending and receiving sites. During this transition, it is possible that a sending prescriber will incorrectly use the Discharge navigator to transfer the patient, rather than the correct Interfacility Transfer navigator. This will result in orders being discontinued, rather than signed and held for the receiving site. Orders can be reordered efficiently at the receiving site using "Restart from Previous Admission" in the Admission navigator. See the new tip sheet for details.  

For more information on other workflows for Home Care, Designated Supportive Living, and Long-Term Care, see the Continuing Care section of this Manual. It also includes training addendums for inpatient Continuing Care and Supportive Living workflows/functionality details that were not covered in IPAC and Ambulatory basic training.

• Starting April 30, lab pathology results (e.g., biopsy results) for admitted inpatients will be delivered to prescribers. Previously, these results were only available on the patient’s chart and in Netcare. 

• In preparation for Launch 8, all results for patients admitted to Supportive Living and Long-Term Care facilities will also be sent.

• Results will be routed using the prescriber’s Connect Care preferred communication method. For most providers, inpatient results will be sent to their Connect Care In Basket.

• For more information about Results Routing Optimization, see Connect Care Results Routing Optimization Overview.

• Questions: ResultsRouting@ahs.ca.

For more information on results routing, see the Results and Reports Management section of this Manual.

Connect Care Launch 8 includes several Population and Public Health (PPH) Programs. There will be some related changes to note for current providers:

• Adverse Events Following Immunizations (AEFI) are currently documented using the online portal. As of May 4, these should be documented directly within the chart using the AEFI Reporting Form flowsheet. 

• Referrals to the PPH programs going live that were previously done externally will move to internal referrals within Connect Care. This includes referrals for:

  • • Population and Public Health, 

    • Public Health Antenatal, 

    • Public Health Communicable Disease, 

    • Public Health Postpartum, 

    • Public Health Prenatal, and

    • Oral Health. 

• For providers who refer to the Antenatal Community Care Program (ACCP) or Antenatal Home Monitoring Program (AHMP), these referrals are moving from a fax to in system. To support this workflow, there is an Antenatal Home Monitoring Order Set to refer to the programs, and place orders for medically high-risk pregnant patients. The referral is embedded in the order set. 

• Referrals for Immunizations – For providers who refer to Public Health for the provision of immunization services, as of May 4, use the Ambulatory Referral to Population and Public Health, and select "Immunization" as the Reason for Referral. Ensure that you answer all questions as appropriate, e.g., “Can client receive live vaccine?”. Phone calls/In Basket messages to the Provincial Immunization team are recommended for more urgent consults and questions.

  • • Tip: Public Health Immunizations in Inpatient Settings

• For providers who refer patients to North Zone Community Indigenous Health providers, as of May 4, this should be entered as an Ambulatory Referral to Indigenous Health within Connect Care.

For more information, see the PPH Information package.