Contributed by Dr. David Weinstein – Nephrologist, Belleville, ON
I wanted to share my experiences with other physicians and offices about some tools for my Electronic Medical Record in Ontario. I have been a physician in Ontario since 2015 and have been in practice since 2002. I work in both my local hospital and my private practice. My EMR and associated tools are so important for making my practice and life more efficient. It is really amazing some of the things I can do.
- In the office, I seamlessly pull labs from OLIS (eHealth Ontario’s Ontario Laboratories Information System) into my EMR. I no longer need my office to call around for blood work. I have access to the data and can work more efficiently. My referring doctors know not to send blood work. This speeds up the flow through my office and saves me on monthly faxing costs.
- In the I no longer call pharmacies looking for medication lists. I can just pull recent prescriptions electronically and now I know I have accurate medication lists.
- I can access records from other hospitals including blood work, radiology reports and images and dictated reports using the ConnectingOntario . It makes it so much easier to reconcile patients from other sites back into the office and make sure I have a complete picture of what is going on with my patients.
- I can access hospital reports in my EMR as soon as they are finalized because my EMR is connected to HRM (OntarioMD’s Health Report Manager). I do not have to wait for anyone to mail or fax them to me anymore. In fact, I have asked my local hospital to stop sending me paper copies of EVERYTHING.
- From my smartphone, or form any hospital computer, I can easily access my EMR and review patient history, medication, prior labs and notes to streamline hospital care.
- As consultant, I can help out other physicians through the Ontario eConsult Program, but I also can challenge myself based on the difficult questions I am being asked.
I encourage all Ontario physicians to incorporate the various digital health tools into your office practice. You will work more efficiently and your patients will be happier. Contact OntarioMD at support@ontariomd.com to connect your EMR to the services I mention above as well as additional services to help you use your EMR more effectively.