ONE Initiative

ONE Initiative LogoThe ONE (one person, one record, one system) Initiative is a north east region-wide transformational project to improve the delivery of patient and family-centred care delivery by creating a single electronic health information system (HIS) built with a common set of standards. The primary goal of this initiative is to enhance safe, evidence-based and patient-family-focused care through a clinical transformation enabled by workflow redesign and supported through technology systems.

The ONE Initiative will help deliver more efficient and effective quality care for health providers and support improvements in patient care and safety by linking regulated healthcare professionals with up-to-date patient information. Through this initiative, hospitals in Northeastern Ontario will move from a fragmented charting environment (paper and multi-systems) to one that consolidates the number of systems and vehicles used to capture clinical and administrative information. In doing so, facilities will move from Health Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Level 3 on the EMR Adoption Matrix (EMRAM) scale to Level 6.

When all three of these components are complete, a new shared service organization, ONE Health Information Technology Services (ONE-HITS), will provide a variety of ONE HIS support and implementation related services to the 23 member hospitals. A comprehensive governance framework will keep members informed and provide a variety of vehicles for member oversight and feedback.

ONE Initiative​ Benefits

The ONE Initiative represents a substantial change for each participating hospital. The transformation will ultimately benefit everyone who gives, receives, or supports the delivery of care in ONE Initiative hospitals.

Here are some of the specific benefits:

A single Northeastern Health Information System for data collection and management is key to achieving efficiencies and improvements in patient care and safety, by linking medical and regulated health care professionals.

This single system will also facilitate a platform for further participation across providers.

Care decisions are made based on the most up-to-date and accurate information available through the use of evidence informed standards.

A key opportunity for care standardization of best practices to enhance patient safety and outcomes, and to reduce harm.

The ONE Initiative will enable the development of a world-class system, as Northeastern Ontario will be one of very few health systems to use a common hospital platform built from scratch with common and integrated standards.

Investment in a common health information system improves care for all patients – as it is the one tool that touches all patients as they receive care across the region and the health care system.

Patients transferred from one participating care provider organization to another will not have to undergo duplicate tests or have to tell their medical “story” over and over.

Their record will be complete and available to health care providers at all hospitals involved in the individual’s care.

It is expected that working collaboratively will achieve an integrated patient record at the lowest overall cost of publicly-funded digital health investments.

ONE Resources for Staff and Providers