Over the coming months, we will continue to introduce you to the dedicated staff members who are working on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Project – a two year project to introduce an EMR to Northern Health.

Three staff members working in the informatics space are Dr Lachie Hayes, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Vanessa Reid, Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) and Daniella Chapkoun, Nursing Informatics and Benefits Analyst.

Lachie explains his work in informatics over the past decade at Northern Health.

“I’ve been involved in various informatics projects at Northern over the last 10 years, providing me with a comprehensive understanding of the existing applications. Through my work at various times as Head of Unit, Divisional Director and Acting CMO, I have a broad understanding of the medical culture and the history of the organisation,” Lachie said.

“In my role, I am actively engaged with senior and junior medical staff, assisting in translating their clinical workflows and experience into the EMR. I also still practice clinically, meaning, I will actually be using the end product and therefore have a strong interest in a successful deployment,” Lachie added.

Daniella is also a long-standing staff member of Northern Health and is looking forward to working collaboratively with her team on the implementation.

“I have worked at Northern Health for almost 20 years! My digital journey began in 2019 with the mapping of current state for the EMR team. I then moved to Specialist Clinics as the project lead, implementing The Referrals Manager,” Daniella said.

“My role in nursing informatics is to work collaboratively with Vanessa to lead and facilitate the engagement of nursing staff in the design and operational readiness with the implementation of the EMR. The role of Benefits Analyst is to collaboratively manage the collective portfolio of project benefits through the full life cycle of benefits realisation,” Daniella added.

Vanessa has worked at Northern Health for over three years as the CNIO and has brought a wealth of experience to the role.

“I joined Northern Health after spending the majority of my nursing career at Austin Health in various positions that provided me with a broad understanding of clinical informatics and experience in a range of nursing roles from the bedside to the executive level,” Vanessa explained.

“I have been working for the last three years as the CNIO, supporting EMR planning and working on various projects and initiatives across the organisation. My role bridges the gap between nursing and clinical information systems at the strategic level, so we can meet the needs of the overall organisation, while keeping the goal of patient care at the forefront of our decisions.”

“I look forward to continuing to work with our nurses to ensure our clinical workflows and standards of practice are considered in design and implementation the EMR.”

Stay tuned for more EMR team profiles in the coming months!

Featured Image (left to right): Dr Lachie Hayes, Vanessa Reid and Daniella Chapkoun