It’s been five years since the first implementation of GoldCare at 12 Children’s Treatment Centres across Ontario to support the process of coordinating service planning for children with multiple or complex needs, and the integrated delivery of rehabilitation services. In that time, industry demands have changed and increased substantially…and GoldCare has been there every step of the way.
In 2010, twelve of Ontario’s Children’s Treatment Centres (CTCs) were awarded a Ministry grant to develop a new children’s rehabilitation information software system that would allow multi-disciplinary teams to share information and collaborate on assessments, care plans and the ongoing monitoring of each child and family’s progress.
Over an 18-month period (during which, the GoldCare solution was selected), representatives from each of the Centres formed working groups to streamline processes, share tasks, and discuss and incorporate best practices to support policies, training programs, and reporting requirements for the new direction.
Utilizing a phased approach, GoldCare went live in June 2012 at five of the Centres. Just one month later, the remaining seven Centres came on board. An additional five Northern Ontario CTCs began using GoldCare in September 2014, bringing the total to 18 CTCs across the province using GoldCare’s electronic health record.
In the years following, both the CTCs and GoldCare have evolved to meet changes in industry requirements and respond to technological advances.
In 2014, Children’s Treatment Network and KidsAbility – Centre for Child Development piloted GoldCare’s Family Portal. Family Portal allows parents to seek and provide information, and actively interact with caregivers through the healthcare record. It also allows family members to communicate with other participating families. The results: increased and improved engagement between families and caregivers—a significant milestone for the CTCs enabled through GoldCare.
Another milestone was achieved in 2015 when John McGivney Children’s Centre implemented GoldCare WebAccess, which allows remote staff, service partners and funders to securely access GoldCare via the internet to review and update information relevant to them anywhere.
As Dawn Mulder, Client Information Systems Analyst for John McGivney Children’s Centre in Windsor, Ontario, explains, “WebAccess has allowed our staff to access important client information off-site, and on-the-go to service clients in the school setting. It has increased efficiency and quality of service for our clients by making sure that our clinicians have information at their fingertips.”
To date, ten Centres have implemented GoldCare WebAccess, enabling their therapists to stay connected while in the community and complete documentation at point of service. That instant accessibility to information eliminates data-entry duplication, saves time and expedites the billing process.
With the addition of the five Northern CTCs, the English and French versions of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment was added to GoldCare. Following completion of the assessment, GoldCare uploads responses to the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN), which collects and safeguards data for the purpose of making a “positive and lasting contribution to the health of mothers, newborns, children and the citizens of Ontario.”
According to Kristel Pallant, Manager of Quality Management t Thames Valley Children’s Centre (London), “The biggest impact of shifting the CANS to a GoldCare AIM assessment form is being able to pull data out of GoldCare using their Make Your Own Report (MYOR) reporting tool, and then having the ability to analyze that information.”
In 2016, Ontario’s Ministry of Children and Youth Services introduced the Special Needs Strategy, engaging service providers and educators to ensure children and youth with special needs get timely and effective services they need. Five CTCs became early adopters of the Special Needs Strategy in their community in 2017, utilizing GoldCare’s WebAccess to ensure secure access for community providers to read and contribute the shared client file.
Recognition as an early adopter has been just one of the many benefits that GoldCare has contributed to the operations of the CTCs, says Elizabeth Martinell, Manager – Quality, Performance and ACS at Five Counties Children’s Centre (Peterborough), “When I was introduced to GoldCare we were told about its potential to share information with families and community partners outside of our organization. This helped to shape our vision of a shared electronic record to facilitate more coordinated service for families with the entire team, regardless of what organization they started with! This is exciting work and helps families to get services that meet their needs without having to retell their stories.”
No doubt, there are many more changes on the horizon. “Rest assured, we are ready for them,” points out GoldCare President, Paula Hucko. “We consider ourselves to be a partner in innovation to our customers and are committed to advancing our product and services to support the ever-changing and growing requirements of our customers across all sectors.”