information system (OLIS) and receive hospital reports. Change ... Hospital report solutions eliminate paper processes (
Physician & Community eHealth
eHealth Ontario
PHYSICIAN & COMMUNITY EHEALTH
eHealth Ontario provides funding and support to community-based health care providers to adopt electronic medical record (EMR) systems. EMR systems allow providers to electronically collect, manage and share health information.
“In the past, it’s been exceedingly difficult and painful because I have had many health problems. Most frustrating is when you get blood work and it’s not given to all four or five specialists. The ability for all the doctors to work as a team is huge. I feel like I’ve been given life back.” – Judith L. Leslie
The majority of patient health information is collected in community-based providers’ offices. Mobilizing data is critical for the promise of ehealth to be realized. The ability to electronically exchange information between physicians and other health care providers enables enhanced care and patient safety.
Patient benefits:
Physician eHealth oversees EMR adoption program, commissioned to broaden and accelerate adoption and use of EMRs among communitybased providers.
✘✘ Optimized patient safety using alerts to reduce medication errors
OntarioMD, a subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), and the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) are eHealth Ontario’s partners in the adoption of EMRs by eligible health care providers. Accelerated efforts are underway to establish EMR interoperability with regional and provincial systems to enhance EMR functionality. The clinical value of using EMRs will continue to be emphasized by accelerating the number of clinicians who electronically access the Ontario laboratories information system (OLIS) and receive hospital reports. Change management supports and integration initiatives are being further improved to promote deeper adoption of EMRs, assisting providers to achieve more technology-related benefits.
“My EMR allows me as a physician to record any information the patient brings to me as well as any other information we collect about that patient into one electronic record. Patients know they can feel confident that their health care is understood by all of the people involved in their care.” Dr. Jane Philpott
Health for All Family Health Team
✘✘ Improved access to appropriate patient information by the
provider at the point-of-care
and provide proactive preventative care measures
✘✘ Enhanced quality of care with access to more comprehensive data,
decision support and best practices
✘✘ Improved wellness of patients through earlier identification of clinical
results and more rapid intervention
✘✘ Reduction in ordering of unnecessary lab tests
Clinician benefits: ✘✘ Improved access to patient information in a more standardized
manner, providing efficiencies and eliminating duplication of effort at the point-of-care
✘✘ Improved turnaround of information at the point-of-care
(e.g., hospital reports, electronic laboratory results)
✘✘ Better coordination of care between multiple practitioners and
within health care teams
✘✘ Enhanced security for patient health information
Health system benefits: ✘✘ Preventing errors leading to costly hospital encounters ✘✘ Accelerated adoption of EMRs demonstrates value and contributes
to improving the efficiency of the entire health care system
✘✘ Better tools to identify trends, facilitate forecasting and
improve planning
Progress to date Building on the success of the primary care IT program, which resulted in approximately 3,000 primary care physicians adopting EMRs, eHealth Ontario launched the EMR adoption program in November 2009. The EMR adoption program is a joint initiative between eHealth Ontario and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). There are currently more than 12,000 community-based providers enrolled in an EMR adoption program, representing coverage for more than 10 million Ontarians. Physician eHealth established a delivery partnership with the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) to roll out a modern EMR system across 75 community health centres, 10 Aboriginal health access centres, and five nurse practitioner-led clinics (NPLCs). This is now the single largest EMR implementation project in Canada.
Hospital reports Physician eHealth works with OntarioMD and regional stakeholders on additional ehealth initiatives to support enhanced patient care. One of the most requested integration opportunities for physicians is receiving their patients’ hospital reports electronically into their EMR. Hospital report solutions eliminate paper processes (mail, fax and scanning) that were required to receive these reports, integrate information from the reports into EMR systems, while reducing the time it takes for information to reach the physicians. Hospital report solutions are now electronically delivering over 500,000 patient hospital reports per month to primary care providers from 80% of Ontario’s hospital corporations.
Next steps Physician eHealth will continue its oversight and support of EMR adoption programs, and monitor progress and realization of targets for EMR adoption and use. It also continues to explore opportunities for innovation as well as integration with existing and new provincial health information systems and health care providers to provide clinicians the information and tools they need to assist them in assessing their patients and providing excellent care.
An additional 21 NPLCs are actively moving to adopt provincially certified EMRs. For details on EMR adoption, visit www.ehealthontario.on.ca. EMR specifications, releases, and certification eHealth Ontario and OntarioMD jointly maintain and develop EMR specifications and releases. Each new release helps to raise the bar for EMR products and gives providers enhanced functionality and increased interoperability with provincial ehealth solutions. To be eligible for funding, community-based providers must select EMR products that meet or exceed published specifications. OntarioMD is responsible for coordinating and managing the vendor certification process.
eHealth Ontario P.O. Box 148, 777 Bay Street, Suite 701, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C8 Tel: 416.586.6500 | Fax: 416.586.4363 | Toll Free: 1.888.411.7742 Email:
[email protected] | www.ehealthontario.on.ca
OCTOBER 2014
It’s working for you.
