Connect Care

Connect Care is the provincial clinical information system (CIS). The implementation of Connect Care throughout Alberta is occurring in a phased approach, starting in 2019 and scheduled to be completed by end of 2024. Please refer to the Connect Care: Implementation Timeline for the latest information about the launch phases and anticipated timeline.

Common High-Level Features of a CIS

Clinical information system capabilities are constantly evolving, but most system capabilities can be grouped into a few high level categories. An example of some of the most common clinical information system capabilities can be found in the figure below.

Order Management

Ordering is an activity of healthcare prescribers whereby tasks are identified, allocated and timed so that investigations, medications and other interventions support patient care goals. All orders have a request component and an action component. Examples of orders include labs, diagnostic imaging and medications. [More Information]

Result Management

Order results and reports are returned to the prescriber for consideration. [More Information]

Medication Management

Medication documentation is about how medication decisions are recorded, communicated, validated, implemented, supported and followed. It promotes safe, effective and appropriate drug therapy as part of patient-centred care. The Connect Care "Medication List" is a record of medications in active use by a given patient at a given time. [More information]

Clinical Decision Supports

Clinical Decision Supports (CDS) link health observations with health knowledge to influenced health choices by clinicians for improved health care. There are five categories of CDS:

1. References summarize evidence that can help the decision-maker understand choices and consequences;

2. Alerts review health events to identify acceptable data and or meaningful associations between data;

3. Reminders anticipate health events, usually prompting for data or actions required to detect or avoid specific health events;

4. Assists facilitate application of knowledge to specific patient circumstances for diagnosis, therapy or prediction; and

5. Guides help organize decisions across time, space and person.

The Connect Care CIS provides supports in all 5 categories, with Alerts (e.g., screening prompts, patient COVID-19 infection control and isolation StoryBoard status) and Assists (e.g., disease severity scores, order panels, order sets) already commonly encountered by users.

Clinical Documentation

Documentation is the process by which we record health observations, assessments or plans so that they can be shared with other members of the healthcare team. Documentation Norms are covered elsewhere, including expectations for meaningful problem, diagnosis, medication, adverse reaction, clinical and encounter documentation. [More Information]

Patient Registration & Scheduling

Connect Care supports patient registration and scheduling to enable AHS to track a patient throughout each stage of the appointment and care process. The system helps manage the complexities of scheduling patients, staff, clinicians and resources.