Daily postings on this channel address needs raised in prescriber huddles, with links to support information. Content is published by 17:30; any additional hot topics after this time will be posted the following day.
Referrals to Home Care
- Home Care referrals need to go through the central Continuing Care Access (CCA) team. In the Home Care order set/SmartSet, the “To Department Specialty” field is prefilled with “Continuing Care Access” to ensure it gets to the CCA team, and this field should not be changed. See the tip sheet for details.
- An issue has been identified for Emergency Department prescribers when searching for the Home Care referral order. The fix is to use the "Discharge Templates" tile in the "Dispo" tab to find the appropriate Home Care referral SmartSet (search for "home care"). A tip sheet with details is in development.
External Medication Cutover at Continuing Care Facilities with External Contracted Pharmacy
- At inpatient Continuing Care facilities with an externally contracted pharmacy, the paper Medication Administration Record (MAR) is the only source of truth for patient medications.
- External Medication Cutover can be undertaken to align the External Medication view in Connect Care to a patient’s complete medication profile. External Medication Cutover can be completed by the most responsible prescriber, or by nurses or pharmacists.
- To determine which patients have undergone External Medication Cutover, nurses, unit staff and pharmacists can add a column to their patient list which indicates attestation of completion.
- See the memo for details.
Managing Orders for Patients on Dialysis - Continuing Care and Correctional Health
- If a Continuing Care/Designated Supportive Living resident or Corrections patient requires hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or an Alberta Kidney Care clinic appointment, there is a specific workflow that needs to be followed so that information flows appropriately through Connect Care. This will allow medication orders to work correctly and help to mitigate patient safety concerns. The specific workflow is dependent on whether the facility is on Connect Care, and, if it is, whether the facility has an on-site pharmacy or uses a contracted/community pharmacy.
- See the relevant memo for details:
- Super Users are a great first point of contact when you need help, alongside the Helpdesk for urgent issues. If you are needing access help, call Helpdesk, as this is considered an urgent issue.
- For less pressing and more complex issues (e.g., help with using the Discharge navigator), the Virtual Drop-in Centre is open 7 days a week for the next few weeks. The hours for the next two weeks (November 2–17) are:
- Monday–Friday: 07:00–20:00
- Saturday–Sunday: 08:00–20:00
- For details on how to access the Virtual Drop-in, including updated hours and posters, see launchhelp.connect-care.ca.
- To prepare for Launch 9, there have been a number of system updates and new or changed workflows that affect Connect Care prescribers from all launches.
- A Launch 9 Updates section in the Connect Care Manual flags the largest updates and changes to be aware of, including:
- Changes related to admitting from/discharging to the Continuing Care facilities launching in North and Edmonton Zones
- Changes to disposition selection in the Discharge order for all IFTs
- Changes related to Health Link and other Population and Public Health programs going live (including ambulatory referrals to Health Link)
- Any additional changes during the launch support period will be flagged on the Launch 9 Updates page of the Manual, as well as this Connect Care Support Blog channel (our regular channel for posting system updates).