St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton has been tasked to lead Project AMPLIFI by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care. Project AMPLIFI is intended to digitally integrate the Long- Term Care Home’s PointClickCare electronic health record (EHR) with the acute care hospitals’ health information system (HIS) through a bi-directional data exchange. Over the duration of the project, Long-Term Care Homes will be connected to the eligible acute care hospitals within their geographic region in phases.
Project AMPLIFI Vision: To improve the continuity of care for Ontario Long-Term Care residents by streamlining transitions between care institutions, leading to safer care for patients, and more efficient workflows for providers.
The Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission report highlighted the need to strengthen health care integration and recommended that a coordinated continuum of care exist for hospitals and Long- Term Care Homes. The COVID-19 pandemic solidified the need for more integrated healthcare services where the system works more seamlessly to support and provide care to our most vulnerable and those in need. As part of the 2021 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Build Ontario, improving patient transitions and sharing of clinical data between the care continuum has become a provincial priority.
The bi-directional exchange of patient health information will provide improved visibility into the patient or resident’s clinical condition upon admission to the receiving healthcare facility. Clinical staff that access the patient’s chart will have an up-to-date electronic summary detailing the patient’s condition upon arrival. Through the completion of discrete data reconciliation, clinicians at both the hospital and Long-Term Care Home will spend less time manually entering clinical information from paper with the intent of reducing transcription errors. Patients are expected to experience higher quality of care, and a reduced need to re-share their story and clinical history repeatedly across care settings.
The Ministry of Health has funded Project AMPLIFI through March 21st, 2024. The software implementation fee and annual license fees are fully funded as part of Project AMPLIFI. Post March 2024, annual license fees will be charged to the hospital systems, meaning that Long-Term Care Homes will not bear the cost of this functionality.