These tools have been proven to make timely handoffs of patients easier, by connecting providers and sharing up-to-date information in real-time at the point of care.
Across Canada, most community physicians are now using an electronic medical record (EMR). In Ontario, approximately 80 percent of community-based family physicians have an EMR. Successful transitions, though, can’t come from silos of information in individual clinics. Digital systems must be connected to each other and to other parts of the health care infrastructure, allowing patient information to flow nearly as quickly as it is generated.
In Ontario, nearly every hospital, and 50 other independent health facilities, is connected to Health Report Manager, moving patient documents, reports and data directly to 8,000 clinicians’ EMRs. eNotifications can alert us when patients are admitted to, discharged from, or transferred within acute care, streamlining post-discharge follow-up and long-term care planning. And a provincial eConsult platform will soon be fully integrated with EMRs, allowing clinicians to ask each other for advice in complex care cases — in many instances, without requiring the patient to be seen in person.
That’s just the start. Our digitally-connected system will eventually link to immunization, drug, and other databases. It will empower patients to make better choices, clinicians to be the best possible partners, and create a health care system that keeps people from falling between the cracks. We’re on the cusp of something truly great!
