Hospitals adopt new e-SARS screening system
Friday April 11, 2003
Queen’s/KGH solution offered to other Ontario medical centres
(Kingston, ON) - Ontario health care facilities are now benefiting from a new, web-based screening system for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) developed last week by Queen’s medical researchers in collaboration with information management professionals from Kingston General Hospital (KGH) and Hotel Dieu Hospital (HDH).
The e-SARS system, which can reduce the time required to screen medical staff, designated patients, and hospital visitors from about a minute to several seconds, has been adopted to date by KGH, HDH, Kingston Regional Cancer Centre, St Mary’s of the Lake, and Providence Continuing Care Centre in Kingston, and St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Brockville. Interest in obtaining e-SARS has also been expressed by a number of other Ontario institutions and one in Calgary, reports anesthesiologist Dr. David Goldstein, medical director of QUAIL (Queen’s University Anesthesiology Informatics Laboratory), the KGH-based research group that developed the system.
SARS e-screening has been offered to member institutions of the Ontario Council of Academic Teaching Hospitals (OCOTH) in Toronto, Hamilton, London, and Ottawa as well. The screening method in Kingston runs on both a wireless network with bar coding, and on stand-alone PCs or a local area network(LAN) with or without bar coding.
“This type of record-keeping should become even more critical in the future for tracking patients, staff, and visitors to hospitals, as more health centres use web-based systems, and records can become centrally linked,” says Dr. Goldstein. “A web-based application provides the capacity for a much quicker response to the changing needs of provincial and public health authorities.”
The e-SARS system replaces the cumbersome “paper trail” currently used at many hospitals. In the future these institutions will have electronic health records that – unlike paper files – can be easily accessed and updated. They will also be much more efficient for follow-up purposes and in potential health crises.
The program was developed in response to provincial directives that require employees of Ontario health care facilities to complete the same SARS screening questionnaire. Michael Rimmer, technical director of the QUAIL lab, worked around the clock to develop e-SARS with team members Aaron Visser, Matt Hartman, and Geoff Babcock.
Managing SARS and caring for patients has been a fine balancing act, says Carolyn Baker, vice-president of patient care services at KGH, who has led a joint multidisciplinary management team since the SARS directives were issued. “E-SARS is a really good example of creative thinking and collective problem solving,” Ms Baker continues. “Getting Michael’s idea to the screeners at the door took real teamwork.”
Other members of the team responsible for implementing e-SARS include, from KGH: president and CEO Joe De Mora, vice-president of corporate services Bill Hart, and acting director of information management Cindy Grant; from St. Mary’s of the Lake and PCCC, acting IT director John Hawkins; and from HDH, IT director Judith Desveaux. Key in the implementation was Katherine Wolsey, director of occupational health and safety for KGH and HDH. All clinical research efforts will be directed by clinical epidemiologist Dr. Elizabeth VanDenKerkhof, research director for QUAIL.
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Contact: Nancy Dorrance, 613.533.2869, Queen’s News and Media Services.
