Connect Care Support Forum: Patient Movement

Showing posts with label Patient Movement. Show all posts

Enhancements to Discharge Planning Tools

Enhancement updates provide short alerts to new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions...

Enhancements to Discharge Planning Tools

Following improvements made earlier this year to the discharge planning tools available in Connect Care, and in response to feedback from users, as of September 22, 2026, a number of additional enhancements will be released. The enhancements are intuitive and passive (i.e., no action required), and are primarily visual improvements or added functionality that reduces the number of steps or clicks required to take action. All discharge documentation workflows and tools remain the same.

As part of these enhancements, users may notice "Predicted Discharge Disposition" information appearing within discharge planning tools for some patients (excludes Pediatrics and Addiction & Mental Health inpatients). The availability of a prediction for a change in needed supports or likelihood of discharge to home/self care is indicated with a crystal ball icon (purple globe symbol) that may appear in discharge disposition patient list columns, discharge planning forms, or discharge planning reports. Prescribers are welcome to use this predicted disposition information when making decisions about a patient's expected discharge disposition.

Prescriber resources have been updated to reflect these changes, and a demo video walking through the Predicted Discharge Disposition function is available. If you have any questions on the changes, please review the instructions/linked resources embedded directly in the Connect Care tools, or submit a helpdesk ticket.

IFT Update - Order Reconciliation Requirements

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IFT Update - Order Reconciliation Requirements

As of August 18, 2026, certain orders will no longer need to be reconciled during the Inter-Facility Transfer (IFT) process, including Goals of Care, bridging medication, and conditional discharge orders. These will clearly be marked under "Orders Not Needing Reconciliation" section of the D/R Orders tab (click the camera icon to see a screenshot).

Update to RAAPID Service Request Order

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Updated "Requested Service" List in RAAPID Service Request Order

RAAPID is a central point of contact for prescribers seeking access to urgent consultation, transfer for assessment, transfer for admission, or coordination of repatriations to sending facilities. The "RAAPID Service Request" order should be entered in Connect Care by prescribers to request a service from RAAPID.

As of March 25, 2025, the "Requested service" list in the RAAPID Service Request order has been adjusted to provide selections from the more precise Clinical Services list. This information will help RAAPID connect you with the appropriate prescriber. Note that this update may impact personalized preference lists; if you have this order personalized with a particular "requested service" selection, you will need to re-personalize it.

For more information on the RAAPID Service Request order, see the tip sheet.

Tip: RAAPID Service Request Orders

Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Order - Updated Availability [Updated]

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Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Order - Updated Availability

Since the launch of Connect Care, several common errors have been identified in the selection of ADT (Admission, Discharge, Transfer) orders and/or using the incorrect order to facilitate patient movement. One example of this is using the "Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery" order AFTER an "Admit to Inpatient" order has been placed.

In order to reduce confusion and prevent providers from entering the Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery order after an admit order has been placed, the order has been removed from the facility pick list. Effective December 12, 2024, the order can only be found and selected within the pre-admission order sets which should be done preoperatively. For those surgeons who do not enter pre-procedure order sets, the order can also be found within the post-procedure order set.

Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery: This is an ADT order that should only be used for Day Surgery patients.

Using the Prep for Procedure navigator, the order can be found in the Surgical Admission pre-procedure order sets.
Should be selected for patients expected to discharge after surgery.

Admit to Inpatient: This order should ONLY be used for a Day Surgery class patient if they require an inpatient admission (i.e., they are no longer a Day Surgery patient).

Once the admit order is placed, it cannot be undone by placing a Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery order.
The patient class will update to Inpatient after the admit order is placed, which will require surgeons to complete a discharge summary and full medication reconciliation.
To facilitate patient movement for Day Surgery patients into inpatient spaces (keeping them as Day Surgery class), use the extended stay workflow.
If plans have changed post-procedure and the patient requires extra recovery time on a unit, the surgeon can modify the existing Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Order and select "Yes" to "Is this patient expected to stay later than regular business hours?".

The Place in Outpatient/Hospital Ambulatory Surgery order is not required to move a Day Surgery patient from a day surgery/cath lab to an inpatient unit. The nurse can simply create a bed request from the status board to facilitate this patient movement. For more information on how to facilitate bed planning on an inpatient unit for day surgery/extended stay patients, see the extended stay workflow tip sheet.

For more information on surgical workflows and choosing the correct navigator:

[Post updated February 7, 2025]

New Ambulatory Referral to Oncofertility

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New Ambulatory Referral to Oncofertility

As of January 15, 2025, the implementation of a new Oncofertility Pathway brings changes to how oncology prescribers will be able to refer to fertility services. The new "Ambulatory Referral to Oncofertility" order will streamline the referral process for connecting cancer patients with fertility clinics. The referral is available to all oncology prescribers (Cancer Care Alberta [CCA] and non-CCA) and will facilitate electronic referral requests being sent to one of the three fertility clinics in Alberta who provide fertility preservation services for cancer patients.

For more information on the referral workflow, see the Quick Start Guide:

Guide: Oncofertility Quick Start Guide

RAAPID Notes Now in Patient Lists

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RAAPID Notes in Patient Lists

As of December 18, 2024, information regarding the status of RAAPID (Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information & Destination) consults and transfers can be found in the RAAPID Patient Lists. RAAPID Notes have been added to the reports view, and can be found by highlighting a patient’s name from the list and searching for "RAAPID Notes" (click on the camera icons to see screenshots). The notes may include updates on the transfer, reasons for delay or special care needs.

For more information on RAAPID, see the Manual:

Manual: Patient Movement - Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information & Destination (RAAPID)

Discharge Dispositions - Simplified Options

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Discharge Dispositions - Simplified Options

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, 2024, 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 on camera icon 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.

Interfacility Transfer Workflow Changes - Held Orders

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Interfacility Transfer Workflow Changes - Held Orders

As of October 16, 2024, orders that are on hold and are marked as "Continue" during the Interfacility Transfer (IFT) workflow will remain on hold when IFT orders are released on the receiving side, until manually unheld. Previously, medication orders on hold that were marked as "Continue" during the IFT workflow were not flagged as held and would become active on the receiving side following the release of IFT orders.

As seen in the screenshot (click on camera icon below), for a held order that the sending prescriber marked as "Continue", the receiving site will clearly see that hold status rather than it being active upon release of the IFT orders. The receiving prescriber would then have to select "Unhold" if the order needs to be active.

Enhanced Discharge as Deceased Navigator

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Discharge as Deceased Navigator Enhancements

A unique patient navigation workflow is needed when a patient dies in a healthcare facility, including when they are declared dead on arrival at the facility. This "patient movement" is a form of discharge, with death bringing the associated healthcare encounter to an end. The workflow is supported with a navigator.

As of October 1, 2024, there are significant enhancements to the "Discharge as Deceased" navigator within the "Discharge" activity available to patient charts opened to an inpatient encounter.

The prescriber navigator has been simplified and provided with brief instructions highlighting tasks for prescribers. Data entry is streamlined, making it easer to complete organ and tissue donation criteria checks. A standardized pronouncement of death note (charting requirement) is generated with a single click. And there is easier access to discharge summary templates that meet provincial documentation requirements.

The deceased navigator update matches recent enhancements to admission and discharge navigators.

Admission and Discharge Notification Updates

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Admission and Discharge Notification Updates

As of September 18, 2024, an update will allow prescribers to choose whether or not they want to receive In Basket notifications for the following patient movement events: Inpatient (IP) Discharge, Emergency Department (ED)/Observation Bed (Obs) Arrival, and ED/Obs Discharge.

If a prescriber already has notifications turned on for IP Admission or External Outpatient Visit (i.e., has "Yes" selected under "Receive Message Notifications by Default"; click the camera icon below to see the screenshot), notifications for these additional patient movement events will be turned on by default.
If a prescriber does not already have notifications turned on for IP Admission or External Outpatient Visit (i.e., has "No" selected under "Receive Message Notifications by Default"), notifications for these additional patient movement events will not be turned on by default.

To update your In Basket notifications to opt in or out of these new notifications, see the tip sheet.

Tip: Setting Care Team Notification Preferences

Interfacility Transfer Workflow Changes

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Interfacility Transfer Workflow Changes

There have been a few important changes to prescriber workflows for Interfacility Transfers (IFTs). 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. There is also a new section for IFTs to out-of-province acute care. All workflow changes have been built into the IFT navigator (for both prescribers and nursing/unit clerks). The navigator contains the updated instructions to follow.

There are two key reasons for the workflow changes:

IFT to non-Connect Care facility – The previous workflow of creating an “IFT Orders Note” caused confusion, due to multiple differing medication lists being produced and sent; there was no prescription for new or changed medications, and the Connect Care system was left with an incorrect home med list. The IFT Orders Note is now only required for IFTs to out-of-province acute care, with the workflow detailed in the embedded navigator instructions, as well as a new tip sheet.
IFT to Connect Care facility – New launching Continuing Care sites that will be receiving transfers from Acute Care can have AHS or non-AHS pharmacies, each with differing Connect Care tools needed for preparing their transfer medication lists. It is not reasonable for the transferring most responsible provider (MRP) to know the pharmacy set up for all the Continuing Care facilities – but the system does know. By streaming all IFTs through the IFT navigator, the tools that the MRP needs will automatically be presented within the IFT navigator. The IFT navigator indicates whether the receiving facility is on Connect Care or not, and the MRP then chooses “IFT to Connect Care” or “IFT to non-Connect Care”. For Continuing Care facilities on Connect Care, the IFT navigator will give the tools to turn all orders into signed and held orders if the pharmacy is on Connect Care, or will give the tools for turning the medication orders into prescriptions and an After Visit Summary and Med Rec for Community Pharmacy Report if the pharmacy is a community pharmacy.

Note that, 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.

For more information:

Manual: Interfacility Transfers
New: Tip: Interfacility Transfer to Out of Province Acute Care
Patient Movement Memo: Changes to IFT to non-Connect Care (includes workflow for nursing/unit clerks)

Repatriation and Consultation/Transfer Update - New RAAPID Service Request Order

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Bundled RAAPID Service Request Order

RAAPID (Referral, Access, Advice, Placement, Information & Destination) is a provincial service used to coordinate consults and the transfer of patients between sites. As of October 31, 2022, the current RAAPID Repatriation order will be changing to encompass both repatriation requests and consultation or transfer requests.

The bundled "RAAPID Service Request" order can be used to request the following:

Higher level of care consultation or transfer, if not urgent
Equal or lower level of care transfer from ED (e.g., capacity move, urgent repatriation)
Equal or lower level of care transfer from inpatient (i.e., "repatriation")

For urgent/emergent transfers, prescribers should continue to call RAAPID.

A tip sheet details the new order fields. For more information on RAAPID, see the Manual.

Facility-to-Facility Medication Reconciliation Streamlined

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Medication Reconciliation Enhancements

A Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) is needed when patients present to a Connect Care encounter from a setting (e.g., home or facility) not using the Connect Care clinical information system. The BPMH outcome will be a new or updated list of "home" medications for comparison to medication choices made within the current encounter.

When patients present from facilities also using Connect Care (e.g., patient sent from a long-term care facility to an emergency department for assessment), their facility medication list takes the place of a home medication list. In these cases, there is no need to re-build the medication list through a BPMH process. A home medication list should not be populated. Medication reconciliation involves deciding which pre-encounter facility medications should be continued, held or stopped when the patient is admitted to the new facility.

To make this straightforward, the usual "Home Medications" navigator sections are hidden for Connect Care long-term care patients presenting to Connect Care emergency departments. Instead, the pre-encounter facility medications are displayed and a link is provided to a navigator facilitating the selective re-ordering of pre-encounter facility medications.

Manual: Medication Reconciliation

Navigator Update - Discharge as Deceased

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Navigator Update: Discharge as Deceased

As of April 21, 2022, there are changes to the "Discharge as Deceased" navigator within the "Discharge" activity available to patient charts opened to an inpatient encounter.

The navigator has been streamlined. Some low-value materials have been removed, including the prior "death" and "organ procurement" notes, which were not used consistently. New point-and-click sections allow things like Medical Examiner's review criteria to be quickly documented.

The navigator update is paired with improvements to discharge summary templates for inpatient encounters where patients die in-facility.

Interfacility Emergency Department (ED) to ED Transfers

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Clarified ED to ED Interfacility Transfer Process

Transferring patients between emergency departments (EDs) is a relatively common workflow. With Wave 2 launch, ED to ED transfers can now involve two sites using Connect Care as the record of care. The RAAPID service, which facilitates ED to ED transitions, is also on Connect Care. Accordingly, there are a few key steps that ED prescribers should be aware of, especially the need to discharge a patient from one site before arriving the patient at a different ED. These considerations are summarized in updates to the Manual:

Discharge from Leave of Absence Workflow

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Discharge from Leave of Absence Process

There are times when a patient on a Leave of Absence (LOA) does not return. The patient may require an admission at another site if, for example, on LOA for a procedure, but following the procedure requires further care at the procedural site. Once it has been determined that the patient will not be returning, the patient should be discharged from their LOA.

Most of the associated workflow can be completed by nursing and ward clerks using their "Unit Manager" activity. Prescribers need to take care of discharge documentation, usually in the form of a discharge summary.

Change to Post-Procedure Navigator - Short Stay

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Change to Post-Procedure Navigator - Short Stay

As of Thursday November 12, 2020, the admission order "Admit to Short Stay" is renamed "Admit to Mazankowski 5A7".

This order appears in post-procedure order sets viewed in the Post-procedure Navigator for surgical workflows. It shows for patients who do not have an admission order and was created to address some specific Wave 1 needs at one facility. The order does not apply elsewhere and is renamed to make it clear that only patients going to the Mazankowski Hospital short stay (Unit 5A7) should have this order placed.

All other patients requiring post-operative short stays should not receive an "Admit to Inpatient" order. The "Post-op" navigator should be used with the "Post-op to Discharge" tab.

Further work will be done to appropriately restrict the Mazankowski-specific order to appear only for the appropriate department. This name change is intended as an interim measure to avoid inadvertent ordering until departmental restrictions are in place.

Improvement to External Orders for Imaging at another Facility

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Improved Order Composer for External DI Procedures

A prior FAQ outlines how inpatient prescribers should order diagnostic imaging procedures to be performed at a different facility.

The associated order composer has been enhanced to automate printing paper requisitions when those are required by a destination facility that is not on Connect Care.

A prescriber tip is updated.

Interfacility Transfer Navigator, LOA for Procedure Improvements

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Improved Inter-facility Transfer and Procedure LOA Workflows

A new consolidated Inter-Facility Transfer (IFT) navigator appears in Connect Care starting October 13, 2020. This addresses concerns of both sending and receiving sites, improving the quality of communication and documentation.

The prior "IFT to Connect Care Site" and "IFT to Non-Connect Care Site" navigators are combined to a single IFT navigator. This provides a consistent experience while guiding providers about the specific orders documentation required for different transfer scenarios. In particular, medication reconciliation and recommended orders are summarized in a standardized IFT Note for receiving non-Connect Care sites.

The new navigator has embedded instructions. Additional or updated guidance appears in the Manual and in linked Tips and Demos, which should be referred to the first few times that a prescriber uses the IFT or Procedure LOA workflows:

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