GTA Health Care Partnership Evolves

An information management and information technology (IM/IT) partnership between 16 health care organizations in the Greater Toronto Area is getting a facelift.

Now a more formal ‘association,’ the partnership will take on a new structure as well as a new name: the GTA Health Information Collaborative (HIC).

“This is the next step in the evolution of our growing IM/IT partnership,” says Barry McLellan, Chair of the GTA HIC and President and CEO of Sunnybrook.

Since its inception in 2004, the SIMS (Shared Information Management Services) partners have worked on integrating projects across all participating organizations.

“Through SIMS, we worked together to improve and achieve the seamless transition of care for clients across the health care field, securely exchanging client information as needed,” says Camille Orridge, CEO of the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre.

“As we have grown, we realized we needed a renewed structure to maintain the momentum,” she adds.

The SIMS Partnership’s collective success and commitment to improve patient care has benefitted each partner organization as well as the broader health care system.

A subset of the group that shares IM/IT resources will continue under the SIMS Partnership name and as a major IM/IT delivery partner for the region.