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As part of the Clinical & Systems Transformation project, on June 19, 2021, BC Cancer’s Vancouver centre switched over from older systems and paper-based charts to CST Cerner ─ a new electronic patient record system. This saw more than 1,000 BC Cancer staff and physicians join sites such as Vancouver Coastal Health’s Lions Gate and Squamish General Hospitals, and Providence Health Care’s St Paul’s Hospital, in using this modern, connected clinical system for patient care.
This change has important benefits for patients and their families. It gives care teams real-time access to patient information at their fingertips, including lab results and medication therapies. It also means that patients spend less time repeating information and undergoing duplicate testing, and will benefit from enhanced medication safety.
“To give a sense of scale, every day 200 patients receive radiation therapy at Vancouver centre, with another 90 receiving chemotherapy, “says Heather Findlay, chief operating officer at BC Cancer. “Moving to this electronic record system will improve their experience and sets the groundwork for what our patients, across the province, can expect once we roll this out at our other centres.”
“Patient safety is always our number one priority,” says Dr. Kim Nguyen Chi, chief medical officer at BC Cancer. “From timely access to information, to barcode scanning of medications, to better care planning, using this new system will support our staff in delivering the exceptional, person-centred care our patients expect.”
Within the next few years, all of BC Cancer’s regional centres will make the switch to CST Cerner to enhance cancer care in the province. The overall number of CST Cerner users is set to increase from ~30,000 to ~40,000 with the CST project rolling out to more than 70 facilities across Vancouver Coastal Health, Provincial Health Services Authority and Providence Health Care. Learn more: cstproject.ca
