TELUS Health PS Suite EMR

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1 TELUS Health PS Suite EMR In this issue: What s new? Community portal Product update announcements Learning corner Important reminders On the calendar Welcome, As healthcare professionals, you are very familiar with the current wait-time situation in Canada. You may have first-hand experience, or know someone who has needed specialized medical care like back surgery or a hip replacement and has had to wait weeks for an appointment with the right specialist and even longer for elective surgery. Without question, one of the biggest healthcare issues we face as Canadians is wait times. According to a 13-country survey released by the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation last year, Canada has the longest elective-surgery waiting times, with 25% of patients waiting more than four months. In addition to the toll on quality of life, the healthcare costs associated with wait times are significant: a conservative $1.08 billion according to a Fraser Institute study entitled The Private Cost of Public Queues, published in June Like you, as a physician and a self-professed technophile, I have a unique vantage point on this troubling reality. On the one hand, what I hear consistently from my medical-specialist colleagues is that a large number of the patient referrals they see are, in fact, people who do not require their care. For every appointment they spend with a patient they do not need to treat, there is someone who does need their care waiting unnecessarily. On the other hand, the root of this issue is due in large part to technology or, more accurately, the lack thereof. Many doctors still rely on outdated paper-based methods to refer patients. That means specialists are processing pieces of paper faxes with incomplete information rather than reviewing patient files with discrete data. The exchange of real data allows specialists to specify the information they require and ensure that it is there before the patient arrives. It also ensures the consultation is appropriate and not a waste of precious resources. When specialists have electronic access to patient information at their fingertips, this can change. It s also an important step toward minimizing wait times for patients, as they will have better assurance of seeing the right specialist in more timely manner. Dr. Brendan Byrne Vice-President, TELUS Health

2 What s new PS Suite User Conference. Don t forget to register for the 2014 PS Suite User Conference being held May 29th through 31st at the Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre & Spa, Toronto ON. Join the TELUS Health PS Suite product team and your peers to refresh best practices and learn new skills. Session formats include traditional classroom style, peer-to-peer learning and hands-on training in a lab-like environment. The 2014 conference will offer a variety of new session topics including missed opportunities in billing, Encounter Assistants for both advanced and beginner users and a specialist s perspective on the efficient use of PS Suite all presented by PS Suite EMR super-users. Six hands-on sessions will be presented by product experts to provide you with training on tools and features like Unlocking the power of the PS Suite EMR dashboard and Using stamps to improve reminders. Private meetings and knowledge exchange with trainers and developers also provide excellent ways to receive training on specific issues of interest to you. Didn t receive your invitation or looking for more information? Please TELUSHealth@telus.com Founder s message TELUS has bought another EMR company, Med Access. These are smart people based in BC who built an innovative EMR. It is used extensively in Western Canada and recently in Ontario. Med Access has some very nice features that we will be borrowing and bringing to you in future versions of PS Suite EMR. We have some good things of our own in the works for you. Read below about electronic submission of Ontario WSIB Form 8, integrated spell checking and consultant features. At last year s User Conference, we promised tools for FHTs to track IHP encounters. These are now available and in production use. Come to the User Conference in Toronto in late May to see these new features and much more. We will be sending many of our best and most experienced people from across the country. If you can t come, send one or more of your staff. They will learn lots of ways to improve your office. Every year, half the attendees are office staff. Cheetah or continues to run very well in my office. One thing we know we have to get right is performance for ASP, for connecting from remote sites, for coming in from home, for everyone. Freezing and hesitations are unacceptable. We now have about a hundred clinics running Cheetah. Most are happy today. The rest, those with remaining performance issues, will be happy by the time you read this. The entire Development team has been focused on making Cheetah run like, well, a Cheetah. They have made steady progress along the only measure that matters: making you happy again. Sincerely yours, Dr. Jim Kavanagh Medical Director, TELUS Health

3 What s new Direct contact for TELUS billing department. At the beginning of the year, the finance department transitioned from the previous billing system to the new TELUS billing system and experienced some conversion issues. We apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced since the beginning of the year. The transition problems caused a higher volume of calls than anticipated for our team to handle, and many of you had trouble reaching us. To better meet your needs, we are now providing a direct contact for your questions. Please contact Sandra Clarke for billing questions or to set up pre-authorized payments (debit or credit card). Sandra can be reached at x3688 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EDT, Monday to Friday, or by at sandra.clarke@telus.com Picture your business winning $100,000. On March 17th, TELUS kicked off the fourth annual launch of The Challenge, a contest for Canadian small businesses. In partnership with The Globe and Mail, The Challenge helps take businesses to the next level by overcoming their biggest challenge thanks to a $100,000 award and a national profile in The Globe and Mail s Report on Business. This year, there will also be prizes for four semifinalists and ten regional winners across Canada. * Winners will be selected by a panel of judges. In 2013, TELUS received over 1,000 contest entries. In the end, Livestock Water Recycling was awarded $100,000. With the grant, the company is researching and adopting new sustainable manure-treatment technologies for cleaning livestock manure to ultimately expand and improve their current operations. This year, The Challenge is better than ever, with even more prizes: 10 regional winners across Canada 4 semi-finalists Ongoing publicity in The Globe and Mail and on the TELUS website Opportunities to network with other entrants Make sure your business is entered for your opportunity to be our next big winner. For full details about how to enter The Challenge, please visit globeandmail.com/thechallenge. The contest closes May 26, *No purchase necessary. Contest runs March 17 to May 26, Click here to read complete rules and regulations.

4 PS Suite Community portal Find the Community portal at or from Thank you to those who registered for the PS Suite Community portal! Your participation in the community drives its success. We are proud to share the following portal statistics and achievements since its inception last May: Over 1,300 PS Suite users are now signed up More than 150 knowledge articles have been published, with over 10,000 downloads Close to 130 new product ideas were suggested More than 110 questions and answers were published in the community The PS Suite Community portal is accessible to all PS Suite users. It is your only source for educational materials, product documentation and important product and release information within a secure, password-protected environment. Join the discussion. If you have not yet registered, please do so today and join other PS Suite users on the PS Suite Community portal. Have something to say? Have questions to ask your colleague(s)? Looking for a specific article? Recordings of our recent webinars are now available on the portal: Specialist-focused enhancements HRM and OLIS MC EDT How do I register? If we have your address in our system, you can self-register at: If you have any difficulties registering with the PS Suite Community portal, please contact the PS Suite EMR Technical Assistance Centre at pssuiteemr.support@telus.com Upcoming enhancements to the portal. Over the next few months, we will deploy enhancements to the PS Suite Community portal, including a new socialnetworking functionality called Chatter. This free functionality will provide our portal users with more advanced collaboration features, such as the ability to share files, view each other s profiles and join groups. Stay tuned for more details!

5 Product update announcements Preparing for your update to PS Suite EMR v TELUS Health will contact you over the next few months to schedule your software update. To be ready to receive the update, we ask that you perform these preparation steps: Create a user account to access the PS Suite Community portal at telushealth.force.com/pssuiteemr. You can register for an account on the log-in page. Once you submit your information, you should have access within 24 hours. Ensure that all end users in your office review the training options for PS Suite EMR v , available on the portal. Review the new minimum operating-system and hardware requirements for Mac workstations (see Workstation Requirements in Preparation for PS Suite EMR v Release on the portal). If your current Mac workstations do not meet the minimum requirements, you must update your workstations prior to your software update. You must update your OS X to 10.7 (Lion) or later. Ontario WSIB portal integration. TELUS Health is pleased to announce a WSIB portal integration solution that delivers both time savings and financial benefits. Our WSIB portal integration solution will allow PS Suite users in Ontario to electronically submit WSIB claims from within their EMR through the use of an enhanced Form 8 custom form. In addition to saving time, for each claim filed electronically an additional $20 can be received over what is normally received when the completed form is submitted via fax. The solution is currently being piloted in a few client sites and will be released, within a few weeks. Once released, the new custom form will be available for download from the Community portal. To use this solution, you must be running PS Suite or later, and must have valid login credentials for the WSIB eclaims portal. You can start the registration process for the WSIB eclaims portal at If your Mac workstations are too old and cannot support this OS X, you must purchase new workstations. If you use OmniPage (scanning), Ghostscript (faxing) or Blast (used in Ontario for some older LifeLabs installations), please contact the PS Suite EMR sales team at (option 2) to find out about replacement solutions. These applications are not supported on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. For more information, please contact Inside Sales at and press 2 for Sales. Or us at pssuiteemrinsidesales@telus.com

6 Product update announcements Integrated spell checking. Spell checking is coming to PS Suite! Based on an industry-leading spell-checking engine with extensive support for medical/pharmaceutical dictionaries and standard English and French language dictionaries, the new spell-checking feature will be available in most text fields throughout PS Suite. This feature will come with regular quarterly updates and will be available for PS Suite version or later. Enhanced management of received documents. We also redesigned the interface of the existing Open Scanned Reports feature and enhanced its capabilities to allow for a more streamlined workflow and management of incoming scanned and faxed documents. The enhancements provide new and improved workflows for saving received documents, including referral letters plus the ability to add new patient charts and attach other documents directly to existing notes in patient charts. Enhanced referral forms for a number of health services and programs in Ontario. We are pleased to announce new, enhanced custom forms that facilitate easier referral of patients to a number of health-related service sites and programs. Available now, these include: A smart referral custom form for Community Care Access Centres, featuring the ability to verify input of required fields A smart referral form for referring COPD and heart-failure patients to the OTN Telehomecare program These enhanced forms are currently being piloted in a few client sites, and will be released within a few weeks. Once released, they will be available for download from our community portal. These custom forms require PS Suite version or later. The new interface features a number of enhancements including: The ability to add new patients or Address Book entries The ability to view patient charts without closing or interrupting your workflow The ability to preview PDF documents The ability to delete unwanted documents as you are processing them within PS Suite This feature will be available for PS Suite version or later.

7 Learning corner Advanced training courses join us in our classroom. TELUS Health continues to provide you with standing courses for two of our most popular classes: Improving Care Consistency through Encounter Assistants and Designing Custom Forms. Every month, these instructor-led classroom courses will be offered in our Ottawa and Cambridge offices. Improving Care Consistency through Encounter Assistants In this session, you will learn how to unleash the true power of PS Suite by creating completely automated encounter workflows. Encounter Assistants will allow you to enter pre-written progress notes, prescribe, start a requisition form, send a message, print a handout and more, all with the click of a button. Designing Custom Forms In this session, you will learn how to create electronic versions of paper-based forms that will automatically be populated with data from PS Suite when placed within the patient record. You will learn how to create and design custom forms from scratch, and how to modify existing forms for clinical customization. Upcoming sessions ** Location Course Name Fee Time Dates 215 Slater St Ottawa, ON Improving Care Consistency through Encounter Assistants $600/seat 8:30 a.m. 12 p.m. June 11, 2014 July 9, 2014 August 13, 2014 Designing Custom Forms $600/seat 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. June 11, 2014 July 9, 2014 August 13, Pinebush Rd Cambridge, ON Improving Care Consistency through Encounter Assistants $600/seat 8:30 a.m. 12 p.m. June 18, 2014 July 16, 2014 August 20, 2014 Designing Custom Forms $600/seat 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. June 18, 2014 July 16, 2014 August 20, 2014 ** Courses have limited seating; please register early to secure your spot. For additional information on these and other course offerings, including learning objectives, fees, who should attend and how to register, please pssuiteemr.advancedtraining@telus.com. One of our representatives will reply within 5 business days.

8 Tips and tricks from the learning corner. Tip #1 Q: Is there a way to filter my Lab Report Inbox so that I am only looking at my current INR patient results that need to be reviewed? A: You can filter your Lab Report Inbox using any text, including patient name and specific lab tests. From the Records window, choose File > Lab Report Inbox. Once the Lab Report Inbox has loaded, locate the filter fields in the bottom left corner and type the name of the lab test that you want to isolate, then click the Update button. The list of lab results will then be refined to those containing the text you entered. Click the View button to display the lab results. Tip #2 Q: Instead of scrolling, is there a faster way to view and access previously documented notes and reports from within a patient s record? A: Using the table of contents function is a great way to quickly view and navigate the content of a patient s record. While viewing a patient record, choose View > Show Table of Contents or press Ctrl {Cmd} + Shift + T on your keyboard. The table of contents will display a single line of text referring to each data entry in the chart. Single-click a line entry to go to the appropriate location within the patient s record.

9 Tips and tricks from the learning corner. Tip #3 Q: I often work with multiple windows open. Is there a fast way to open and navigate to different windows using only my keyboard? A: Quick navigation keyboard shortcuts are a fast and easy way to open commonly used windows. Begin by pressing Ctrl {Cmd} + O to bring the main toolbar to the front. Then, select the first letter of the window that you wish to open. A opens Appointments, P opens the Patients window, B opens the Bill Book, R opens Records, M opens Messages and H opens Handouts. Once you have opened all the windows you wish to use, press Ctrl {Cmd} + ~ (the tilde key beside the number 1 key) to navigate through them in turn. Additional tips For additional tips and tricks, see the FAQs in the Knowledge section of the PS Suite Community portal.

10 Reminders Privacy and personal health information. Protection of the privacy of patient information is a primary concern for EMR users. This is a reminder that, for workstations in exam rooms and other situations where access cannot be fully monitored, there are a number of best practices that PS Suite EMR users can implement to limit or prevent access to patient personal information. Within PS Suite, you can designate a computer as a Sensitive Machine. With this designation, the computer s users will be prompted to enter a password in order to access a patient s chart. And as an additional precaution, a blank record is displayed when the Bill Book, Patients file or Inpatients file is opened. To further protect privacy on workstations that may be accessible to unauthorised people, we recommend that you set the automatic logout as low as possible without impacting your workflow. You can configure these settings in the Security preferences. Please refer to your PS Suite EMR user guide for further details. Name changes to laboratory tests. Have you been notified by your lab company that they have changed how they report lab tests? Let us know so we can implement it in your PS Suite software. When implemented, we will update your PS Suite software to include the new name. When your post-update verify runs, it will ensure that lab results received prior to the update are now matched to other similar values. When labs make changes to test names, it is a good idea to review your search/reminder criteria to ensure you continue to receive accurate results. Our Technical Assistance Centre can help you change your searches/reminders if you find they are no longer capturing the values for the changed test names. New address for TELUS Health EMR support. The old address (emr_support@cma.ca) is no longer valid. Our new address is pssuiteemr.support@telus.com. On the calendar Event Name Location/City Date TELUS Health PS Suite User Conference Markham Hilton, Toronto ON May 29-31, 2014 OntarioMD EMR: Every Step Conference and Vendor Showcase Centurion Conference & Event Center, Ottawa ON June 12-13, st CPS Annual Conference InterContinental Hotel, Montreal QC June 25-27, 2014