November 12, 2019
James Morton, clinical lead and assistant head nurse for the Cardiac Device Clinic at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, helped develop an application that will see patient-care data flow seamlessly to Connect Care from a Paceart, a proprietary cardiac device information system.
Story & photo by Shane Westin
RED DEER — When Registered Nurse James Morton tells you he loves his job, he’s speaking both from the heart and about the heart.
Morton, as clinical lead and assistant head nurse for the Cardiac Device Clinic at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC), finds it immensely fulfilling to see his heart patients leave the hospital with a new lease on life.
“I can’t tell you enough how much I love my job,” he says. “It’s the most rewarding thing you can imagine.”
Morton’s passion for patient care goes far beyond the bedside.
He’s also the volunteer chair of the Cardiac Devices Sub-Committee for the Cardiac Sciences Connect Care Area Council, where he provides leadership, clinical expertise and a passion for patient care.
“James has been a key resource for the Council in terms of understanding both the clinical workflows and the cardiology informatics,” says Kelly Longard, director of Cardiac Sciences, Critical Care and Respiratory at RDRHC. "He’s a great ambassador and an expert contributor."
These qualities serve Morton well in integrating the unique tracking and reporting needs of 13 cardiac clinics and their patients across the province within the architecture of the new Connect Care system.
“This is such a specialized area and nobody had done it before on this scale,” says Morton.
With a computer science background and a central Alberta farm work ethic, Morton and the Connect Care team stepped up to design a solution. A self-professed “techie” by nature, Morton put his heart into it.
“He’s gone far above and beyond what we could have hoped for,” says Longard.
What Morton and the team have developed is an application that interfaces seamlessly with the Epic system — and is considered a “significant” contribution to the Connect Care platform.
Soon, patient-care data will flow seamlessly to Connect Care from Paceart, a proprietary cardiac device information system. Reports that could have taken an entire day will now be produced in under 30 minutes.
“It’s simply outstanding,” says Dr. Jitendra Singh, an Internal Medicine physician at RDRHC. “It could not have been achieved without tremendous effort.”
While Morton acknowledges the enormity of the accomplishment, he shares the tribute broadly.
“It was a group effort right from the beginning,” he says.
“The Cupid team for Connect Care and the Subcommittee of the Area Council have put immense time and effort into developing a solution that works for our patients.”
