How to join
The first step in joining the program is filling out an Expression of Interest form and submitting by email to info@edocsnl.ca. The clinic will then be contacted by program staff for a call to explain the program and the onboarding process. Pre-implementation project planning will begin following the Expression of Interest call and is initiated by the submission of a program application.
The implementation process involves eDOCSNL, Telus and the clinic and will typically take a number of weeks to months, depending on all parties’ availability to complete the steps in the process and the complexity of the clinical requirements revealed through implementation planning.
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions page for more information. Generally, the onboarding process will follow these steps:
Expression of Interest Call: A telephone call with program staff to provide enough information on the program and the implementation process to make a decision as to whether to proceed with EMR implementation. This typically takes an hour, though longer bookings can be accommodated at the clinic’s request.
Clinic Needs Assessment: in this session Telus and/or eDOCSNL staff will collect the specifics of your implementation to enable us to configure the EMR (Electronic Medical Record) instance to the needs of the clinic. This is a critical session and representatives from all areas should attend. The information gathered at this meeting will determine how the EMR instance looks and functions on go-live. Typically this session will take at least two hours but could be longer depending on the size and complexity of the clinic.
Kick off call: This is a call with Telus to outline the project process for the clinic and expected next steps. This takes approximately an hour. Preferably representatives from all aspects of the clinic would be involved in this call, including the clinical and administrative sides.
Training Days: typically two days are needed to train all staff. Usually one day is set aside for support staff training and one for clinical staff, depending on the size of the implementation. If the analysis of the information gathered during the Clinic Needs Assessment suggests that a longer training period would be advisable, this can be arranged. The training sessions are a mixture of classroom-style learning and hands-on practice. It is critical that all staff who will use the EMR be present at training. No patients should be booked on either of these days – the clinic should be effectively closed.
Go-live support: staff will remain on-site where possible to support the clinic during the first day of use of the EMR. We can consider lengthening this support period if circumstances require and personnel are available. It is very difficult to see patients at a normal pace while using the EMR for the first time – we would recommend booking no more than 50% of normal volume of patients for the first two days of use and gradually scale upwards as comfort level with the EMR increases.
Additional training: 6-8 weeks after go-live, program staff will be back to support the clinic with challenges with basic use and to introduce advanced features of the EMR. This mandatory training component is an opportunity for all staff to ask questions, get a refresher on some items that may not have penetrated during training and propose changes to configuration to address workflow concerns. Following this “day three” training, practice advisors are available to further educate the clinic on efficiency and clinical value features of the EMR.