During residency, I often heard colleagues talk about how better systems could improve the way we deliver care.

Whenever we ran into challenges, the conversation would turn to how things could be done differently. At the time, it felt like a distant promise. 

Fast forward to finishing residency. When I joined NL Health Services, I decided not to wait for change; I wanted to be part of it.  

That curiosity led me to the CorCare team. CorCare is the new province-wide health information system launching in April 2026. It will replace many outdated systems with one connected platform, leveraging the Epic software, and helping health-care providers access and share patient information more easily. 

After connecting with Dr. Bourassa-Blanchette, a specialist in infectious disease and medical microbiology, and hearing his experience and vision for what CorCare could bring to Newfoundland and Labrador, I knew I wanted to get involved. I joined as a physician builder and trainer. 

Even though CorCare has not gone live yet, I have completed my training and can already see how transformative it will be. 

Today, a typical day as a hospitalist at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital involves a number of workarounds. I manually build my inpatient list by checking each unit. I call the switchboard and wait to connect with specialists. I track down nurses to review medication records in physical binders. Communication often happens on handwritten boards. Even writing a patient note can mean juggling multiple systems. 

CorCare is designed to change that. 

Patient lists can be generated automatically. Finding the on-call specialist becomes a quick search and straightforward. Medication administration records are available directly in the patient’s chart. Communication with nurses and allied health teams will happen through secure, real-time messaging. Documentation will be more streamlined, with the ability to review charts and write notes all in one place, and even save work to return to later. 

These may seem like small changes, but together they represent a major shift in how we deliver care. These changes will help standardize workflows, improve coordination across teams, and increase access to information, while also strengthening privacy and communication, reducing the risk of errors and improved patient care. 

Looking ahead, I am excited about what this means for our province. CorCare will connect providers and services across NL Health Services through one unified system. It is a massive undertaking, the largest evolution of our health-care system to date. 

Most importantly, it will help patients and their care teams stay better connected. And that is where the real impact happens. 

This story was written by Fakhri Matar, social media specialist with NL Health Services.