In an effort to modernize processes, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is seeking to replace the physical whiteboards in its renal care unit with a digital solution. The goal is to optimize the visualization of patient status and operational information (e.g., occupancy), thereby enhancing the coordination and delivery of patient-centred care.
CAN Health is posting this Call for Innovation to seek out qualified Canadian companies who can meet the following desired outcomes. VCH and CAN Health reserves the right to not move forward with this project at its full discretion and in particular if there are no qualified Canadian companies that can reasonably meet the desired outcomes.
To qualify for a CAN Health project, the company must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- Headquartered in Canada (additional criteria apply for companies not headquartered in Canada)
- Majority ownership of both the company and the solution by Canadians
- Solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL)>7, indicating actual technology completed and qualified through tests and demonstrations
- All the data and AI models (if applicable) must be hosted in Canada and comply with all the Canadian privacy regulations
- Possess all regulatory approvals required for commercialization, such as Health Canada approval
- Completion of all required clinical validity/unity studies
- No need for policy changes to be widely adopted
- Strong use cases in the Canadian health care system
If the company is not headquartered in Canada or the solution is not majority owned by Canadians, additional criteria apply:
- Independent autonomy over business operations and product development (for subsidiaries, affiliates or distributors)
- High Canadian job creation potential, especially in executive and senior management positions
- Commitment of over 70% of contract value to Canada
During the company selection process, preference is given to companies/solutions fully owned by Canadians, followed by those majority owned by Canadians, and finally international companies with a significant presence and economic impact in Canada.
Problem Statement:
With the exponential growth of VCH’s renal patient population, the current physical whiteboards are hindering operational efficiency, diverting valuable clinicians’ time away from point-of-care, and lagging behind in digital technology.
Objectives:
VCH’s renal care team expects to eliminate their reliance on current low-tech whiteboards and leverage digital methods of extracting and visualizing hospital occupancy measures, thereby optimizing resources and clinical workflows.
The solution should display essential information in a visual manner, including the patient’s name, dialysis schedules, status, type of dialysis spots, transitions to community dialysis units, and other conventional patient-specific indicators (such as infectious status, safety precautions and patient alerts) all in real-time to ensure patients are receiving the best possible care.
Essential (mandatory) outcomes:
By digitizing their whiteboards, VCH requires:
- Seamless communication and efficient teamwork for patient access to care, transition management, and flow management;
- Delivery of high-quality services via reduced administrative burden;
- Improved coordination of resources across the renal care team;
- Centralized digital database for faster information sharing and analysis;
- Ability to interface and communicate with electronic medical record (EMR) system of health authority.
- Liberation of clinicians to direct their time and attention to point-of- care, resulting in improved staff satisfaction and patient experience.
Additional outcomes:
The proposed solution must:
- Offer real-time patient and staffing updates, thereby eliminating the reliance on low-tech whiteboards;
- Offer dashboard for the health-care providers and clinicians for triage and decision-making;
- Enhance communication between patients and the care team;
- Reduce time spent on manual updates and release clinicians’ time to direct care;
- Optimize efficient workflows;
- Increase staff satisfaction and experience;
- Increase patient satisfaction and experience;
- Be able to be scaled by leveraging learnings from this project; and
- Be able to be rolled out across the province to other health authorities in partnership with BC Renal Agency.
The maximum duration for a project resulting from this Challenge is: 12 months.
VCH provides a high level of clinical care in a patient-centric manner. To do so, they must reduce administrative workload and optimize the use of clinicians’ time spent at point-of-care.
Historically, VCH’s renal care team relied on physical whiteboards to display essential patient information, status, and operational measures, from which patient activities were tracked and occupancy measures for capacity planning were manually extracted.
A digital solution would have a direct impact on patient experience and staff satisfaction by allowing staff to direct and dedicate their time and full attention to patients at their bedside.
