St. Joseph’s Healthcare launches patient flow application
A New VUE Makes Quality Patient Care More Efficient and Safer in Real-‐‑Time
Tuesday, October 1st 2013 Hamilton, ON –
This Friday, October 4th St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton will launch a digital application that will assist in improving the flow of patients within the hospital by providing real-‐‑time status of the inpatient beds at Charlton Campus.
“As an academic acute care hospital focused on patient flow and the patient experience, we know that there are predictable surges in volume with patients coming in for care” says Michelle Joyner, Patient Flow Manager at St. Joseph’s Healthcare. “With the launch of our new digital platform, we’ll be able to see a bird’s-‐‑eye-‐‑view of how patients are moving through our hospital making admission and transitions easier by having real-‐‑time bed availability information at our fingertips.”
Up until the launch of the application, St. Joseph’s staff connected on the phone and at in person meetings to understand the flow of patients between units. This tool will assist staff in visualizing all beds and will also help the team proactively manage congestion points and allow problem solving to be active.
St. Joseph’s will launch their patient flow system, VUE (meaning “outlook” or “view” in French), this week with the help of Oculys, a health care software developer based in Waterloo. This type of patient flow application has already been piloted with positive results at Hôtel-‐‑Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, a pillar of its success being access to this secure online tracking system via both desktop computers and smart devices such as tablet computers.
With VUE’s real-‐‑time accuracy, St. Joseph’s staff will be able to see a snapshot of how many patients are waiting for beds, how long they’ve been waiting and how many beds are about to become free. This allows staff to make informed, proactive decisions about how patients transition within the hospital – safely and efficiently controlling patient flow. This type of digitally aided efficiency will also dramatically reduce the amount of time spent manually reporting the status of bed allocation.
Michelle Joyner is happy to report that with the implementation of VUE, valuable staff resources will be freed up by making bed-‐‑allocation meetings much more functional and streamlined.
Not only will VUE help transform the way St. Joseph’s staff works, it will also provide further insight when making important decisions related to hospital operations management.
“We’re embracing new and innovative ways to deliver compassionate care while increasing efficiency,” says Dr. David Higgins, President of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “With real-‐‑time visibility, this innovative technology allows our staff to keep our patients well-‐‑informed and this knowledge provides a sense of comfort as patients transition within our hospital.”
Media Contact:
Megan Bieksa | Senior Specialist, Media & Strategic Issues
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton | T: 905.522.1155 ext. 33037 | C: 905.975.2944
E. mbieksa@stjoes.ca
TW: @STJOESHAMILTON
More Information:
Viewing VUE and Seeing It In Action:
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton welcomes members of the media to experience our VUE patient flow digital application in person at our hospital with a guided tour. Please contact our public affairs department to inquire.

About St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton:
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is a regional leader in patient-‐‑centred care providing acute care, research, teaching, community and international outreach programs throughout our network. Since being founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890, our hospitals span three specialized campuses in the Greater Hamilton Area (Charlton Campus, West 5th Campus and King Street Campus), with St. Joseph’s Villa Dundas providing long-‐‑term care and St. Joseph’s Home Care providing personalized home care traversing the reach of our region. For more information about St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, please visit www.stjoes.ca.
About Oculys:
VUE is a product of Oculys, which is a Waterloo Region based software company. Oculys specializes in developing real-‐‑time, mobile decision support applications for healthcare. Its main purpose is to enhance, develop and market innovative technology solutions that empower health-‐‑care organizations to be more efficient, effective and patient focused with the express input and feedback of healthcare professionals. The link to their website is: www.oculys.com.