Interoperable Technology to Help Modernization of Joseph Brant Hospital

TORONTO, ON — Orion Health, a leader in population health management and healthcare integration solutions, announced today that it has been selected by EllisDon Design Build Inc. to modernize Joseph Brant Hospital's communication infrastructure, preparing it to meet the future healthcare needs of one of Canada's fastest-growing communities. Powering all communications and data processing will be Orion Health's Rhapsody Integration Engine. Designed for rapid interoperability between healthcare IT systems, Rhapsody is the pre-eminent engine delivering secure patient information among healthcare clinicians, collaborators and patients.

"There's urgency in healthcare for building technology solutions that accelerate the shift towards patient-centric care and away from the traditional disease-centred model of care," explained Gary Folker, EVP for Orion Health in North America. "Partnering with EllisDon to help transform Joseph Brant Hospital into the pinnacle of healthcare delivery will usher in a new wave of smart hospitals, while allowing us to combine our expertise in healthcare integration with their innovative approach to healthcare planning and design."

Rhapsody will be a key component of improving the workflow and communication among the various departments within the hospital, as well as the quality of real-time patient information available to clinicians. This greater access to secure patient data will ultimately result in more timely care and better coordination of care.

"As this is one of the most substantial projects we've worked on, our goal was to bring a technology partner on board that can help solidify the collaborative, patient-centric environment we are building," said Stephen Foster Director, ICAT, EllisDon. "In Orion Health, we have the partner that offers the best healthcare information technology solutions to address the needs of both patients and healthcare professionals — now and into the future."

In addition to the transformation of the hospital's administrative, clinical and patient information systems, EllisDon is also spearheading the design, build and financing of a number of renovations and expansions within the hospital:

- Construction of a new, seven-story patient tower that will have a new emergency department, nine operating rooms and a post-anesthetic care room that will allow for an additional 1,770 inpatient and day surgeries
- Upon completion of the project there will be 172 modern inpatient beds and 70 per cent of the patient rooms will be private
- Expansion of the cancer clinic, enabling the hospital to serve an additional 2,876 patient visits
- Modernization and expansion of the laboratory to improve turnaround time for test results

The implementation of Rhapsody will be completed by September 2016, while construction of Joseph Brant Hospital's new patient tower will be completed in the fall of 2017 and renovations to the existing hospital will be completed in 2018.