Playing a vital role in CIUSSS operations, the Information Resources Team has a mandate that includes ensuring the availability and accessibility of the technological infrastructure, the computer equipment and technical support for all network facilities. In recent months, the team has successfully completed a number of important projects.
2 talk, dial 2 first and Watch your 6!
Since January 2017, nearly 9,000 employees of the Jewish General Hospital and the former establishments of CSSS Cavendish have had their phone extensions changed. The endeavour began with the “2 talk, dial 2 first” campaign and ended in June with “Watch your 6”. In addition, 891 telephone sets from the former Cavendish facilities were changed to allow for migration to an IP solution. Five team members worked on this significant project: Youcef Khene, Azadeh Azarnioun, Monique Leclerc, Nzau Mazimbala and Moran Solomon.
Migrating Lotus Notes to Outlook
We recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of migrating our CIUSSS’s 8,000 email accounts to the Outlook platform. A great deal of upstream work ensured the success of this change for about 7,000 employees. Under the leadership of Bilal Sirhan, and primarily with the support of Pierre-Gilles Mastail and Alain Denis, a team of about ten people made preparations in October 2017 and trained the pilots in each of our network’s facilities. Migration officially began in February 2018 and ended in June. Its success is largely due to communication about this project: information sessions for nearly 1,000 people, an intranet section that included several online guides, webinars, manuals and sending several emails.
Migration from Windows 7 to Windows 10
In 2020, Microsoft will discontinue support for its Windows 7 platform. Thus, all of our CIUSSS’s computer workstations must migrate to the Windows 10 interface. This major operation began in December 2018 as a pilot project at CLSC Benny Farm, and will continue for all CIUSSS facilities until January 2020. Although this migration may seem simple at first, it really isn’t: The IT Team must ensure that all of the applications that we use daily are compatible with the latest version of Windows.
Printer optimization
This two-year project will make it possible to renew the printer inventory at all CIUSSS sites, with standardization that will reduce the costs to our organization and its ecological footprint. Eight IT team members have been assigned to this project on a part-time basis. About 150 obsolete printers are in the process of being replaced. Afterwards, more than 1,000 network printers and 1,000 local printers will be evaluated, so that their numbers can be reduced, and that optimized and standardized planning can take place in this environment. Under Bilal Sirhan and David Vespa, this project can also count on the participation of James Reid from Procurement Services and Michael Waugh from the Department of Finance.
Consolidated interface of Octopus system
Since the summer of 2018, the IT Team, under local pilot Patrick Roy, has been working to develop and consolidate the Octopus system. Today all requests concerning information resources, telephony, CLSC and JGH archives, as well as human resources staffing, can be made through Octopus. Requests for JGH material resources will very soon be consolidated into this interface. Other departments have also expressed interest in using this system, including the Food Services and Security teams.
Deployment of Microsoft Active Directory
To give employees access to multiple network resources with a single username and password, a six-person team under Dave Checkland is working to consolidate our CIUSSS’s nine Windows computer systems into one. Better known as Active Directory, this project aims to simplify the IT environment, and improve its management and security. All of the facilities, except the JGH, have now been consolidated into the new CIUSSS CCOMTL domain. The team is currently finalizing preparations for the JGH’s system, which is the most complex of all. This project paves the way for new types of technology, such as cloud computing and new applications offered by the Ministry (e.g., the Quebec-wide centralized laboratory system) that require unique identifiers. The project is expected to end in December 2020.
Deployment of the Vaccination Registry
The Quebec Vaccination Registry was created by the MSSS to provide protection against diseases that can be prevented through vaccination. Since December 31, 2018, all vaccines administered in Quebec have had to be included in this registry. Clinicians in the CLSCs have been entering vaccination data into the registry for several years. This new web platform allows other network stakeholders (FMGs, travel health clinics, pharmacies, private homes for seniors, etc.) to consult or enter this data. Thanks to the collaboration of employees from various departments, the IT Team, under Guylaine Valois, has succeeded in mobilizing the entire CIUSSS, in particular through a training environment, technical support and efficient communication. The Vaccination Registry is now used throughout our network.
Starting the Organizational Patient Index (IPO) project
This Index aims to unify the Sicheld, Clinibase, Gap and Radimage systems for all of our facilities. It is part of a plan to implement a provincial-wide solution for unique and uniform user identification. By April 2020, the IPO will link to the RAMQ’s user registry in real time and will be a fundamental element in the flow of healthcare information among the various information systems. This project, under Nathalie Bernard, will also integrate clinical data and make it accessible, harmonize professional practices, provide safe user care, and optimize systems, cost and compliance management systems.
