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Integrated System Testing was a major milestone for the Bridge Northwest Program. Staff from hospital organizations across Northwestern Ontario travelled to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Care Group to participate, bringing valuable role-based expertise and perspectives from their respective sites.
💡Think of Integrated System Testing as a dress rehearsal before the main event. It provides an opportunity to put Expanse through its paces in a controlled environment, learn where adjustments are needed and build confidence in the system before go-live.
Over four days, participants worked together to follow simulated patient journeys through Meditech Expanse. Each scenario tested how information, orders and tasks moved between different roles, departments and organizations. This provided an important regional view of the system—one that could not be achieved by testing individual functions or workflows in isolation.
The sessions also created an opportunity for staff to experience Expanse firsthand. Participants saw how familiar processes will be completed in the new system, explored features designed to support their work and were able to contribute the practical knowledge that comes from delivering care in communities of different sizes, locations and service environments. Their input helped ensure testing reflected the realities of healthcare delivery across Northwestern Ontario.
Just as importantly, testers helped identify any system failures and other areas requiring further investigation or refinement. Finding these issues is an expected and important part of testing, allowing the team to address them well before the system is introduced for patient care.
Thank you to everyone who participated in or supported this Testing event. This regional effort brought together a wide range of experience and perspectives, helping move Bridge Northwest another step closer to introducing one shared health information system across the region.
The results from Testing will now inform the next stage of preparation. Items identified during the sessions will be reviewed and addressed as the Program moves toward Organizational Testing, when each organization will test its own systems, devices and processes in preparation for go-live.
