Timaru Hospital moves to digital patient records

NEWS  - eHealthNews editor Rebecca McBeth

Patients at Timaru Hospital will benefit from faster access to information and better coordinated care following the introduction of a new digital patient documentation platform, Health New Zealand says.

Cortex gives healthcare teams real-time access to patient records, allowing clinicians to securely access and update information at the bedside using mobile devices, and to receive test results and other diagnostic information as soon as they become available.

Clinicians can view a patient's information in one place, providing a more complete picture of their care and supporting faster decision-making. The system also includes digital task management, enabling healthcare teams to assign, track, and update patient care tasks, improving communication and helping ensure important actions are completed promptly.

Health NZ South Canterbury chief nurse Anna Wheeler led the governance team responsible for introducing Cortex to Timaru Hospital and says the project required input and support from multiple teams to ensure its success.

"Moving from paper notes to a modern electronic record system is a significant step forward for patient care in South Canterbury," Wheeler says. 

"It gives clinicians access to the information they need when they need it, helping them provide safer, more coordinated care."

Wheeler says the platform will give teams real-time visibility of clinical records and patient observations, support communication and care planning between hospitals, and improve the quality and availability of clinical documentation.

The platform is already live in Canterbury and the West Coast and the plan is to expand it as a regional system across the South Island, once business cases are approved.

The go-live at Timaru Hospital involved six months of planning and preparation across multiple teams, including the rollout of more than 200 new digital devices, improvements to Wi-Fi capability within the hospital, and training for doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals.

Health New Zealand Digital Services programme director Jon Herries says providing clinicians with a shared view of a patient's care, wherever they are, is particularly valuable for patients receiving care across both Timaru and Christchurch.

He tells eHealthNews the implementation went smoothly and akey part of the preparation involved pre-loading each trained staff member's Cortex account with favourites - the forms they use most often - so clinicians could find what they needed straight away without having to search.

With Cortex now live, Timaru Hospital has inpatient documentation to complement existing tools including MedChart for electronic prescribing, PatientTrack for observations, and the Health Connect South clinical portal.

"Having the right information available at the right time supports better communication between healthcare teams and helps ensure patients receive timely, well-coordinated care throughout their hospital journey," Herries says.

The team can also measure the real-world impact on patient outcomes, with baseline metrics collected on factors such as length of stay at Timaru Hospital prior to go-live, providing a solid basis for monitoring any improvements that can be attributed to the new platform.

Herries adds that lessons learned and resources from the Timaru rollout can be used to support wider implementation, and that larger hospitals will require a staged approach.

Chris Rumball, clinical lead for Cortex at Sense Medical, says it has been a privilege to work alongside the Health NZ and South Canterbury teams to bring Timaru Hospital onto Cortex.

"We are excited for the clinicians, the patients, and the wider health system who will benefit from the teamwork and culture that grows from using a modern, mobile-first tool built for, and with, our New Zealand hospitals, and one that clinicians genuinely look forward to using," Rumball says.

He adds that Sense Medical looks forward to the wider Cortex rollout across the South Island. 

Image: The Cortex rollout team (from left to right): Ros Jackson, Morten Viehoff, Udo Froetschl, Jane Merry, Kate Wilson, Emily Kirk, Julie Turner, Anna Janeic, Rheyden Howe, and Ralph Samson. 

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