The Central Patient Attachment Registry (CPAR) is a provincial system that captures the confirmed relationship of a primary provider and their paneled patients. Community Information Integration (CII) is a system that collects select patient information from community EMRs and shares it with other members of the patient’s care team through Alberta Netcare.
Clinics using both CII and CPAR have been live since the beginning of 2019, and there are close to 30 participating clinics. Recently at the Primary Care Network (PCN) Strategic Leadership Forum, representatives from the first clinics in Beaumont, Camrose, Devon and Leduc PCNs shared some of their early experiences. One of the first clinics to go live was LA Medical in Leduc. PCN Improvement Facilitator Sandee Foss worked with LA Medical and says using CPAR was the next logical step in continuity of care for the clinic as they were panel ready and had already been addressing panel conflicts. Christine Ridden, LA Medical’s Clinic Manager, acted as site liaison, coordinating forms, updating the clinic PIA and liaising for set-up with both eHealth Support Services and Microquest, the clinic’s EMR vendor. Christine admits that there was quite a bit of paperwork. She and their panel manager assumed new roles as CPAR access administrator and CPAR panel administrator for the clinic.
In preparation to participate in CII/CPAR, LA Medical’s Dr. Justin Balko had more than one water-cooler-type conversation with his colleagues to answer questions and ensure they were comfortable with where the data was going. In addition, the physicians had an EMR mapping session with their vendor to understand which fields transfer to a patient’s Netcare record. Go-live day was a non-event, and days passed by before Dr. Balko had to ask if it had been turned on! While it had no impact on physician workflow, Christine and the panel manager dealt with their first panel conflict with a participating clinic from Camrose.
Stacey Strilchuk, Executive Director, Camrose PCN, says they came on board because CII/CPAR was in line with the PCN’s business plan. The PCN was excited about the connection of information flow between hospitals and clinics and was interested in seeing reports when a patient presented in emergency. The clinic relationships that PCN Improvement Facilitator Eryn Petiot developed have been key to their success and most clinics in the Camrose PCN, including PCN-operated clinics, are moving forward with CII/CPAR.
The group shared some advice to others considering undertaking CII/CPAR. Christine explained that their journey began several years ago with panel and proactive screening care. Dr. Balko indicated that it is important to identify a physician champion in the clinic and, if you do not have a clinic manager, to leverage your PCN improvement facilitator. Stacey noted the importance of celebrating accomplishments.
As CII/CPAR is nearing the end of the limited production rollout, primary care clinics can notify their PCN of their interest in participating in the general rollout. These are the key participation criteria:
- panel readiness
- being live on Alberta Netcare
- having a clinic PIA that reflects the current environment
Microquest and TELUS EMRs have conformed for rollout. QHR is expected to conform this summer.
Learn more about CII/CPAR.