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Newsroom
Media Release
March 5, 2009
ATTN: NEWS / HEALTH / TECHNOLOGY EDITORS
Collaborating to Save Lives – Trillium Health Centre joins the Open Source Order Sets Network
Celebrating the new collaboration between Trillium Health Centre and Open Source Order Sets Network are (left-right): Dr. Norman Hill, VP, Medical Affairs; Janet Davidson O.C. president and CEO; Dr. Chris O’Connor, founder of Open Source Order Sets and Director of Medical Informatics; Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar, chief of staff; and Benoît Long, VP, CIO and CMO. A high resolution version of this photo is available on request.
Trillium Health Centre won the inaugural Innovation Award for Improving Quality and Patient Safety in 2006 from the Ministry of Health in Ontario for its innovative developments in the use of order sets. Now, Trillium has signed an agreement with Open Source Order Sets (OSOS) to bring Trillium’s award-winning order sets on line and share information with hospitals across the country.
“Joining the OSOS Network allows Trillium to share order sets with more than 65 hospitals – 40 of them from Ontario – and to use the OSOS library of best practice order sets as a clinical resource,” says Janet Davidson O.C., president and CEO of Trillium Health Centre. “We will be able to collaborate with each other rather than working in isolation and duplicating each others’ work. That means savings to our health care system and improved outcomes for patients across Canada.”
Order sets – pre-printed templates used by physicians to order the treatments, medications, procedures and consultations for specific ailments – improve patient outcomes by improving communications and preventing avoidable errors. Trillium’s initial study of the use of order sets in 2004 showed that using order sets resulted in a marked improvement in many areas of patient care. One notable result was an increase in the use of Heparin SC to prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (blood clots in the leg). Another study, by Ontario’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in 2007, showed that the use of order sets in treating children with asthma reduced the rate of return visits to the emergency department significantly.
Because of its innovative work with order sets, Trillium Health Centre has seen improvements in patient safety and quality of care, and better workflows for staff and physicians. By joining the OSOS Network, Trillium will both share its expertise in development work with other organizations and benefit from the work its peers are doing.
“Hospitals want the best possible outcomes for their patients, and using order sets tangibly improves patient outcomes in all areas of care,” says Dr. Chris O’Connor, founder of Open Source Order Sets and Director of Medical Informatics at Trillium Health Centre. “The collaborative OSOS network means hospitals can work together and learn from each other. This cooperative approach will lead to increased order set use and increased order set quality. It reduces duplication and helps preserve our public health care resources.”
Trillium’s commitment to improving the quality of patient care has led it to seek innovative technology solutions to enable safer patient care – from BlackBerrys in the ICU to eWhiteboards to the development of electronic patient records. Dr. O’Connor’s work on order sets is part of his ongoing commitment to innovation in health informatics – a commitment championed by Trillium Health Centre.
“Order sets play an important role in the improvement of the quality and safety of patient care,” says Benoît Long, VP, chief information and chief marketing officer. “They are an important first step in developing future tools by creating standardized forms that can be adopted later into new technology, like electronic patient records or computerized practitioner order entry.”
For more information on Open Source Order Sets, visit: www.ordersets.com.
About Trillium Health Centre
Trillium Health Centre is one of Canada’s largest hospitals with regional tertiary programs in advanced cardiac, vascular, stroke, neurosciences, orthopaedic, and sexual assault and domestic violence services. Housing a model ambulatory care centre and the largest free standing day surgery centre in North America, Trillium serves over one million residents in Peel and West Toronto and from other communities across Ontario. With the continued support of the Trillium Health Centre Foundation, the hospital’s fundraising arm, the two-site facility is attracting international attention for its innovative approach to providing safe, high quality health care services and has received numerous national awards for quality and innovation.
For more information on Trillium Health Centre, visit: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org.
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Media
Contacts:
Larry Roberts
Media Relations Consultant
Trillium Health Centre, at
905.848.7580 ext. 3832
Mobile: 416-358-7201
lroberts@thc.on.ca.