TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2015 /CNW/ - Hospital Report Manager (HRM), an application that sends medical and diagnostic imaging reports electronically from hospitals and independent health facilities across Ontario directly to physician electronic medical records (EMRs), has exceeded the 100th sending facility milestone. At the end of August, three hospitals in South West Ontario ─ Guelph General Hospital, Groves Memorial Community Hospital, and North Wellington Healthcare ─ went live with HRM, raising the total number of sending facilities to 102.
"HRM has streamlined and expedited the transfer of information from affiliated hospitals. This minimizes the gaps that sometimes occur when patients enter the hospital system and allows me to deliver more complete care for my patients," stated Dr. Roy Wyman, South East Toronto Family Health Team.
OntarioMD, in collaboration with 12 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), eHealth Ontario and its regional integration initiative, the connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) Program, sending facilities and EMR vendors, has been expanding the availability of the HRM throughout Ontario. 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.
"With HRM, we no longer have to wait for reports to be sent to our office or track down reports that have not yet been received. We receive reports directly into our EMRs and can provide timely follow-up care that often results in improved patient outcomes and reduced hospital readmission rates. From a patient perspective, HRM is leading to improvements in continuity of care." Dr. Kevin Samson, East Wellington Family Health Team.
HRM is demonstrating its versatility and ability to send not only hundreds of types of hospital reports, but also other report types and notifications. It is sending eNotifications ─ electronic notifications alerting clinicians to a patient's admission or discharge from the emergency department or in-patient unit ─ to an increasing number of clinicians. HRM is also adding Ontario Telemedicine Network's Telehomecare reports and has become a primary electronic report delivery solution for the province. HRM was recognized with a Canadian Health Informatics Award for Innovation in Health Informatics earlier this year for its innovative approach to physician adoption of this useful application.
About HRM
HRM sends reports directly to provincially-certified 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. HRM has improved the flow of patient information from acute care settings to the community and has enriched physicians' EMRs with information they did not have previously, such as eNotifications. HRM is adding enhancements and new reports regularly to meet the needs of Ontario's physicians.
HRM is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
About OntarioMD
OntarioMD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). It manages programs and services that connect EMRs to more patient data collected outside primary care settings. It receives funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to support Ontario's physicians to implement an EMR and to optimize EMR use.
About Connecting South West Ontario Program
Connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) is a regional integration program, funded by eHealth Ontario, and developed in partnership with the four LHINs of south west Ontario and local health service providers. The cSWO Program and its delivery partners are implementing an integrated electronic health record (EHR) that makes an individual's health information from across the continuum of care available in a timely and secure fashion at any point in care.
SOURCE OntarioMD
Image with caption: "Impressive Results (CNW Group/OntarioMD)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150929_C7681_PHOTO_EN_509325.jpg
Kathy Tudor, Director, Communications & Marketing, OntarioMD, 416-623-1248 x5460, [email protected], www.ontariomd.ca; Toni Adey, Director, cSWO Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, 519-630-5735, [email protected], eHealth Ontario - Regional Integration
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