New Web Technology Enhances Patient and Staff Experience

Sunnybrook-developed ‘eSheet’ now in use at Odette Cancer Centre

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has developed and launched a ground-breaking new web technology tool called “eSheet” that will enhance the patient and staff experience at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre.

A provincial first, eSheet is an electronic version of the doctors’ paper order form used at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre. With eSheet, doctors’ orders (e.g. for blood tests, chemo and radiotherapy, and appointments for diagnostic imaging) are now being entered into the computer by the physicians and then processed online by clerical staff. Pop-up reminders appear on-screen to prompt the user for required information, ensuring that nothing is overlooked or incomplete on the form.

“Ultimately patients will benefit from eSheet because the processing time for orders will be greatly reduced, thus ensuring they are able to get their blood test or chemo treatment, for example, that much faster,” says Oliver Tsai, Director of Information Technology at Sunnybrook. “Orders will now be more legible, comprehensive and immediately available to all who need to see it. In addition to clerical efficiencies, it is also a patient safety improvement as any human errors that might occur in deciphering the written reports, for example, are minimized.”

eSheet was developed because many staff members require simultaneous access to the information on the order sheet. In the past, multiple steps had to take place to share the paper copy, and still the form might not be available in one place because it was needed in another. In addition, Sunnybrook will eventually be moving toward a paperless patient chart, a change that makes eSheet essential.

“We knew we would have had to find an electronic solution for the order forms at some point so that they would mesh with the eventual shift to electronic patient charts,” says Tsai. “We're ahead of the curve, which is a great place to be.”

The program is also an environmentally friendly solution, dramatically cutting out the approximately 200,000 paper order sheets used every year.

eSheet is starting with the haematology oncology sites before the full roll out in fall 2008. Currently, the software is specific to the Odette Cancer Centre’s needs; however there are many components that could be applicable to other programs and hospitals if the infrastructure for support is developed. The development of eSheet was an internally funded project.