Launch 9 Updates - October/November 2024
This page gathers the number of updates going live around Connect Care Launch 9 that affect both new and previously launched Connect Care prescribers. This page will be updated with any additional items, and flagged as needed on the Connect Care Support Blog channel.
For Launch 9 prescribers requiring help, please see the Launch Supports page for general launch support information, the Corrections Health Services page for Provincial Corrections Health Services (PCHS) workflows, or the Continuing Care page for Continuing Care (i.e., Home Care, Supportive Living, and Long-term Care) workflows. Launch-specific issues are also flagged during the launch support period on the Connect Care Support Blog in daily "Hot Topics" posts, with links to helpful information.
Once launch support has ended at your site, that is not the end of Connect Care support available for prescribers! A 2-pager summarizes the post-launch supports that are in place to continue to make your user experience smoother. Don't struggle - ask for help. A solution is likely just a call or click away.
For Launch 9 Connect Care Prescribers: Paper order sets for Long-Term Care and Hospice Admission (click to expand/collapse)
Paper order sets for community-based admissions to Long-Term Care or Hospice ("Long Term Care Admission Order Set" and "Hospice Admission Order Set") are now available. These are to be used by prescribers and then faxed to the facility. These paper order sets have a 1:1 relationship with the order set in Connect Care so that nurses can safely and efficiently transcribe the orders. The paper order sets are linked below as well as on Insite (under Provincial Forms and Downtime Forms) and ahs.ca (under Topics by Department > Seniors/Palliative & End-of-Life Care).
For Launch 1-8 Connect Care Prescribers: Changes related to admitting from/discharging to the Continuing Care facilities launching in North and Edmonton Zones (click to expand/collapse)
Admissions from newly launched Continuing Care sites
The admission workflow involving patients coming from launching Continuing Care facilities to Acute Care and the Emergency Department will change. Prior to Launch 9, patients arrived with paper MARs as their home medication lists. This information was entered into the Connect Care BPMH. After Launch 9, you may encounter different scenarios when admitting patients from:
Continuing Care sites with an AHS pharmacy (Capital Care patients excluding those in CHOICE inpatient beds) – There will be no paper MAR. There also is no BPMH as their home medications are their active encounter medications. This list can be found in the Admission navigator under the "Restart from previous encounter" section. A tipsheet explaining this process can be found here.
Continuing Care sites with external pharmacy (Covenant, North Zone), and facilities not on Connect Care - Will continue to have a paper MAR sent with them. This is the source of truth and should be used to update their BPMH. This is unchanged from pre-launch.
Discharges to Continuing Care
All discharges to Continuing Care sites should happen in the IFT section of the Discharge Navigator, or the Disposition Tab for Emergency Departments. The navigator will know whether the facility has an AHS or community pharmacy, and will provide the correct tools for this process.
When sending to a site with an AHS pharmacy, you will receive options to complete the IFT Orders as using the same process when transferring to acute care facilities on Connect Care.
When sending to a site with an external/contracted pharmacy or a facility not on Connect Care, the navigator options will reflect this by providing options to complete a DSL/LTC transfer.
For ALL Connect Care Prescribers: Changes to disposition selection in Discharge order for all IFTs (click to expand/collapse)
The "Disposition" field in the Discharge order is required to be documented upon actual discharge. Previously, if the wrong disposition was selected it created issues with printing the appropriate discharge/transfer documents (i.e., AVS), which impacted discharging the patient in a timely manner.
To simplify the selection process and prevent issues from occurring, as of October 30, all transfer dispositions will be removed from the disposition picklist (dropdown menu accessed via the magnifying glass icon in the search field) and replaced with one transfer disposition called "Transfer to Another Facility". This new disposition should be used for ALL interfacility transfers (IFTs) to other hospitals including rehab, mental health, long-term care/Continuing Care, acute care and correctional health locations. The actual destination type and destination location will be captured in the Discharge Form (by unit clerk or nursing) upon actual discharge. The new disposition is also available as a new speed button, to the right of the search field (click here to see screenshot).
All other discharge dispositions (e.g., for patients who have died, left without discharge, AMH dispositions, and patients dismissed from the ED that have not been admitted) have also been simplified, and remain available in the disposition dropdown menu.
For ALL Connect Care Prescribers: Changes related to Health Link and other Population and Public Health programs joining Connect Care (click to expand/collapse)
Connect Care Launch 9 includes several Population and Public Health (PPH) Programs, including Health Link (811).
Health Link:
The following Health Link programs will now have orders and documentation available in Connect Care:
Health Link Virtual MD - see the Quick Start Guide
Health Link Outpatient Covid Treatment Program (OCTP) - see the Quick Start Guide
Health Link HIV PEP Follow Up - see the Quick Start Guide
A new internal "Ambulatory Referral to Health Link" order is available. This referral can be used when referring to the following departments:
Alberta Quits
Outpatient COVID Treatment Program (OCTP)
Dementia Advice Line
HIV Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) Follow Up
Previously, an external referral was required for Alberta Quits and Outpatient Covid Treatment Program (OCTP).
"Ambulatory Referral to Public Health Communicable Disease (aka BBFE)" should still be used for referrals to CDC, when HIV PEP is not indicated.
For more information on other PPH changes, see the PPH Information package, particularly:
Slide 5: Overview of Public Health referral orders.
Slide 13: Contact info for urgent/after-hours calls to the Medical Officer of Health (MOH)
Slide 15: Info for referring non-occupational blood and body fluid exposures (BBFE) to Public Health.