From Michelle Neale’s perspective, change is inevitable. She has worked at Northern Health for a whopping 25 years, spending the past 10 as a housekeeper at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) in Prince George. Recently, Michelle and many others who work at UHNBC experienced major changes during the implementation of a project called Capacity Management, which is part of the Northern Health SaferCare clinical quality improvement and digital transformation initiative.
“Change – it’s going to happen anyways,” said Michelle on the new system and change. “The fact is that now we’re going to get things done faster, as long as I know what’s going on and I know exactly where I need to go. I don’t have to worry about phoning down to our supervisors anymore.”
Capacity Management: The new clinical system at UHNBC
Capacity Management is a new patient flow system at UHNBC that uses a digital dashboard to improve patient flow by optimizing bed management and automating job assignments for housekeeping.
- It will transition UHNBC to more consistent, digitally enabled patient flow and transfer services.
- This includes adopting standard admission, discharge, transfer, and cleaning processes.
- This will help UHNBC in bed planning, crisis management, and process improvement.
Capacity Management brings long-term benefits for UHNBC staff
Loveleen, Kelsee, and Dawn (not pictured) work at the UHNBC Rehab Unit and were also impacted by the switch to the new Capacity Management system. Dawn, an LPN, shared her thoughts on the new change.
“For housekeeping, the beds are getting cleaned quicker,” Dawn said. “It’s a lot more efficient and you don’t have to call them. For the Capacity Management system, I like that if you’re frustrated and need help, you use the 24/7 help line for staff.”
“Everyone’s always reluctant to learn new things,” said Loveleen. “But now, there’s no missed communication which is a good thing. Especially when all the departments can communicate with each other.”
Louise (not pictured), who works as a nursing unit clerk on the Rehab Unit, shared her insights as well. “I’ve been with Northern Health for over 46 years. Technology scared me at first, to be honest,” she said. “But I learned Powerchart, and now it’s no big deal! You just have to keep working on it when it comes to technology. And, I know I always have help.”
A manager’s point of view
Darcy Hamel is the Priority Initiative Manager at UHNBC and has been involved with the implementation of Capacity Management at the site.
“It’s always a challenge to implement change and even more when there are high staffing challenges like we see currently,” he said. “Staff were trained with the knowledge that the long-term goal is to reduce their overall workload with the full SaferCare initiative and create specific benefits with this application. Capacity Management is one part of the whole initiative and we have seen staff approach this with everything from reluctance to enthusiasm. We have had our bumps in the road and adapted when necessary. As staff become more comfortable with the change, we are seeing less issues, which is a testament of the great work the staff do on a daily basis.”
The implementation team has taken the learnings from this implementation to use them at other sites to help improve the next phase of SaferCare: digital documentation and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) at UHNBC.
Working through change together
Anna Phang is a nursing unit clerk at PCMU and has been with Northern Health for over eight years.
“For me, the hands-on learning really helped,” she said. “At first, we didn’t like it, but now I think people’s attitudes are changing. Most people are enjoying it now instead of having to make two phone calls before. People are more comfortable. At the beginning, I was kind of scared of the technology, but now I try and help people and we encourage each other.”
For more information
- Learn about the Northern Health SaferCare clinical quality improvement and digital transformation initiative
- For staff, visit the SaferCare MyNH page (staff login required)
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