TORONTO, June 16, 2015 /CNW/ - Hospital Report Manager (HRM), an application that sends medical and diagnostic reports electronically from hospitals and independent health facilities directly to physician electronic medical records (EMRs), has been recognized with a Canadian Health Informatics Award for its innovative approach with Ontario physicians to adopt this eHealth application to improve patient care. The award was presented to OntarioMD during the annual national eHealth Conference.
HRM sends reports directly to EMRs within minutes of being transcribed. It solves the problem of busy physicians or their staff having to manage substantial amounts of paper coming in from many sending facilities every day. Instead of opening, scanning into the EMR and filing paper reports, reports are going straight into patient charts in the EMR. Physicians receive a notification that reports have arrived and are ready for their review. Patients do not have to bring in copies of their discharge summaries or remember details of their hospital visit.
OntarioMD, in collaboration with 12 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), regional partners, sending facilities and EMR vendors, has been expanding the availability of the HRM service and adding more report types. HRM is seamlessly integrated with OntarioMD-certified EMRs to connect physicians to patient information generated whenever their patients have been hospitalized. Pushing up-to-date, accurate information from acute care to community physicians' EMRs has resulted in faster follow-up and more informed treatment plans for patients and has reduced the burden on the health care system from hospital readmissions.
Patients have been impressed that reports are arriving in their physician's office before they do. "Getting results faster helped reduce my anxiety," said Jennifer Paradis, a patient in Barrie, Ontario. "Instead of waiting for several days to get results, I was very impressed that they arrived in minutes, which allowed my treatment to progress more quickly."
"Patients are experiencing timely follow-up after they have left the hospital," said Sarah Hutchison, CEO, OntarioMD, "and they are really pleased that physicians are aware of their hospital admission before they arrive in their office for follow-up. Communication and coordination between physicians and the hospitals has improved."
"What's really exciting about HRM is that it has an immediate impact on patient care. It allows me to get quicker access to test results and treat patients in a more timely fashion," stated Dr. Anne DuVall, Clinical IT Lead, Barrie & Community Family Health Team, "Results are right there when we need them."
HRM is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care through eHealth Ontario.
About OntarioMD
OntarioMD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). It manages the EMR Adoption Program, funded by eHealth Ontario, to help Ontario's physicians implement an EMR and mentors them to optimize their EMR use. OntarioMD also provides value-added services, such as Hospital Report Manager, to connect EMRs to more patient data collected in other care settings.
SOURCE OntarioMD
Image with caption: "Award-winning EMR application (CNW Group/OntarioMD)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150616_C5789_PHOTO_EN_18165.jpg
Kathy Tudor, OntarioMD Communications & Marketing, 416-623-1248 x5460, [email protected], www.ontariomd.ca
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