Phase II Projects:

• Firewall – additional security work:  Phase I of the Firewall work addressed the most pressing concern of protecting the Municipality from external/outside attacks from the internet.  Statistics show that a larger percentage of attacks and compromises come from within an organization.  Phase II of the firewall implementation is designed to address these insider attacks in which we have a number of risk areas.  One large risk area comes from the multiple Government of Ontario network connections (GoNet) throughout the municipality.  The police and social services primarily use GoNet connections.  Other significant sources of risk involve our public access stations.  They are located in HRDC rooms, libraries and service centres throughout Chatham-Kent.  Security devices will connect satellite police offices behind the firewall and public access machines will be separated into a low priority, separated channel.

The purchase of additional routers, firewalls and switching equipment enabled the segregation of our network into VLAN's.  These VLAN's along with established routing protocols, rules and configuration have enabled our network to be further protected from the possibility of internal security breaches between our networks.

• Implement an on-line scheduling system for local hospitals and physician's offices:  The system will allow a client to request an appointment for an outpatient service. The three hospitals in Chatham-Kent (St. Joseph Hospital, Public General Hospital and Sydenham District Hospital) provide a large number of outpatient services that require a scheduled appointment.  Currently the patient is restricted to scheduling their appointment through phone calls and paper forms or through their physician's office.   The project will provide the Municipality's constituents with the capability to request an appointment from their home, office and/or other internet connected location, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The request would be received by the hospital personnel and entered directly into the McKesson Information Solutions, Pathways Healthcare Scheduling application.  The application provides the patient itineraries, which include date, time, instructions, patient preps and maps.  These would be transmitted back to the patient via an email message or a printable on-line form.

The Connect Ontario funding has provided for a portion of the necessary infrastructure required to make this project a reality.  This system will provide for a centralized scheduling approach for all Chatham-Kent Health Alliance out-patient services.  A centralized scheduling office has been created at the main campus on Grand Ave in Chatham.  Physician's offices will have access through a web-based browser and community accessibility will be offered through the Community of Chatham-Kent portal. 

 

The benefits of the project include:

• Reduced patient wait times in lobbies and departments.
• Easier/faster and more streamlined registration process.
• Consolidation of schedules.
• Patient preferences are considered.
• Patient itinerary (when and where to arrive for the appointment and list of booked procedures.)
• Conflict checking (so the patient is not expected in two different departments at the same time.)
• Better use of financial and human resource.
• Decreased amount of time that the physicians' offices spend scheduling appointments.
• Increased customer satisfaction – one call approach.

This project has been accepted as a "late" deliverable under the Connect Ontario contract.  Citizens will have the ability to use the system in September of 2004.