The Digital Health Playbook mandates that Ontario Health Teams use a clinical viewer; the HITS eHealth Office at Hamilton Health Sciences operates one of the two viewers called ClinicalConnect which is the clinical viewer for Ontario Health West Region. ClinicalConnect is a secure web-based portal that provides physicians, clinicians and their authorized staff with real-time access to their patients’ electronic medical information, including historical data, from all 72 acute care hospitals, Ontario's Home & Community Care Support Services and oncology centres in South West Ontario, plus various data repositories including the Province's:

• Clinical Documents from the Acute & Community Clinical Data Repository (acCDR)
• Diagnostic Images & Reports from the Diagnostic Imaging Common Service (DI-CS)
• Medication Records from the Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR)
• Lab Reports from the Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS)

Why Use ClinicalConnect?

It offers 24/7 access to patients’ essential health information, reduces duplication of tests and procedures, saving time, discomfort and cost; improves coordination of care between healthcare providers, and improves patient safety and quality of their care. Accessible on desktop & mobile devices, launches seamlessly, with patient context, from multiple types of health information systems. Supports provincial Single Sign-On standard, settings can be customized by users, and all accesses to data are subject to audit. Data from provincial repositories is viewable in ClinicalConnect by users at authorized Participant Organizations.

Key Clinical Modules

• Allergies: allergy information; allergies are also flagged in the Patient Header
• Blood Bank: results that can be filtered by test or product
• Cardiology: cardiology-related reports and images 
• Health Records: scanned historical health records from select hospitals
• Home & Community Care: data from CHRIS, including Coordinated Care Plans, notes, client demographics, personal & medical contacts, service list, placement list, characteristics,
  LTCH choices & bookings, community support and other resources, diagnoses, primary care group, risks, safety issues, allergies
• Lab/Microbiology/Pathology & Genetics Modules:
  • Hospital and Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS) lab reports
  • Lab Module features graphing & trending capabilities; expanded or list views; results can be filtered by Hematology, Coagulation and Chemistry
  • Microbiology Module includes Virology results (Hepatitis, Rubella, CMV & all needle stick Serology tests)
• Pharmacy: 
  • Hospital Meds: in-patient hospital pharmacy orders for selected visits/encounters
  • Home Meds Drugs & Services: meds/pharmacy services from Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR), including data from Narcotics Monitoring System (NMS).
• Radiology: 
  • Radiology reports and images from hospitals and select Independent Health Facilities, including from Diagnostic Imaging Common Service
• Transcription: typically includes discharge summaries, consultation reports, OR and progress notes from hospitals, including from Acute & Community Clinical Data Repository

Key Features & Functionality

• Census Lists: speed patient searches, available by inpatient/outpatient locations (Station/Ward/ED)
• New Results: flag new and abnormal results from the last 24, 48 or 72 hours, including email notifications when new results are available, in ClinicalConnect (select Participant Organizations only)
• Patient Dashboard: creates customized “landing page” according to most-used modules based on workflow
• Patient Search: conducted by Health Card Number (HCN), Name, Medical Record Number (MRN)  with multiple sorting options available
• Patient Visits Timeline: provides interactive historical and future scheduled outpatient visits
• Worklist: available to all users to create their own patient lists to streamline accessing data

ClinicalConnect Clinical Viewer: One-Stop-Shop

• Other repositories like the Digital Health Immunization Repository (DHIR), as well as other otherwise disparate health information systems used across the continuum of care, can be connected using ClinicalConnect
  to truly provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for managing patients’ healthcare from within a single system
• ClinicalConnect launches from various information systems including certain primary care EMRs, PointClickCare (used in LTCHs), and supports provincial Single Sign-On Standards including ONE ID 
• Flags various patient populations such as Frequent ED Visitors, known infectious diseases etc.
• Interoperable with other health information systems; for example, can be evolved to support creation/management of eReferrals, or launch from other systems like OTN’s eConsult

If you are not already a Participant of ClinicalConnect, please click here to review the process and apply to become a new Participant.

If you are unsure how ClinicalConnect may fit into your application to become an OHT, please speak to your OHT's single point of contact for digital health who is responsible for leading the implementation of digital health activities for your team.

If your OHT has questions about ClinicalConnect, please contact info@clinicalconnect.ca.