Project: Patients before paperwork
Supporting innovative and creative digital solutions to make it easier for providers to deliver and connect people to care.
What is Patients before paperwork?
Patients before paperwork (Pb4P) aims at making it easier for providers to deliver and connect people to care by supporting innovative and creative digital solutions. Digital health tools will modernize clinical pathways, for example, paper-or-fax-based ones, and transform information sharing across the health system.
Ontario Health advancing digital innovations
Ontario Health is advancing various digital initiatives to enhance health system collaboration, security and connectivity. The goal is to create a more connected, coordinated and patient-centred health system in Ontario. Digital innovation will also strengthen health privacy and reduce the administrative burden faced by health care providers.
Benefits of Patients before paperwork for patients and service providers
Whether you are a patient or a health care provider working in Ontario, Pb4P will make it easier and more convenient to access and deliver care by:
- Promoting timely delivery of care through the reduction of paper and fax-based workflows.
- Improving access to care and reducing delays in the delivery of patient care.
- Enhancing health care privacy measures and avoiding fax-caused privacy breaches with secure digital health tools.
- Improving inter-system and provider-to-provider communication to support continuity of care.
- Ensuring alignment between digital health tools, projects and digital health portals.
- Tackling sources of provider burnout by addressing administrative burden and streamlining technological demands.
- Contributing to health system planning so resources can be better allocated and the goals of the quintuple aim can be met. The quintuple aim includes enhancing patient experience, advancing health equity and improving population health, provider experience and value.
Implementation of regional and provincial programs and initiatives
The Pb4P implementation plan for the top three fax-reducing products aims at reducing fax volume by approximately 75% through eReferrals, Lab Ordering and ePrescriptions. The current phase 1 of the initiative will focus on raising awareness and increasing adoption through targeted communication.
eReferral Service
eReferral (electronic referrals), is a major component of the Patients before Paperwork initiative and digitizes the traditionally paper-based referral process, eliminating the need for fax. It enables quick and secure referrals between primary care clinicians, specialists and organizations province-wide, reducing administrative burden and supporting clinicians to spend more time delivering patient care.
eConsult Program
The Ontario eConsult Program offers access to secure online tools that provide timely access to specialist advice by connecting primary care providers and specialists through electronic consultations.
In OH East, two successful eConsult services offered by The Ontario eConsult Program are actively used. For additional information, please visit eConsult programs.
Health Report Manager (HRM®)
(HRM®) facilitates secure electronic transfer of patient records between hospitals, independent health facilities, specialty clinics and community-based primary care clinicians using an OntarioMD-certified electronic medical record (EMR) system. It reduces the reliance on fax-and-paper-based workflows by adding patient reports, like narratives, text-based medical records (MR) and diagnostic imaging (DI), directly into a patient’s record within their clinician’s EMR.
Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS)
OLIS is a secure digital health tool that provides authorized health care providers with access to patients’ laboratory test orders and results, both past and present, from hospitals and public health and community labs through one platform. The centralization of information enables patients’ results to follow them as they move between different care settings, from hospitals to long-term care, and enables health care providers to make more informed, timely and safe care decisions.
OLIS also reduces laboratory errors caused by illegibility or misinterpretation of requested lab orders, improves the turnaround time for lab results and enables patient orders and results to be added directly into an electronic medical record (EMR).
The Archipel Patient Before Paperwork initiative
We are currently assessing a variety of digital health tools and clinical workflows. This work is being informed by engagement with clinicians, health system partners and patients through a multi-phased and clinically led approach.
Engagement is a key component of this initiative and will help to guide change and identify new opportunities to improve health system coordination, as well as enhance the experiences of patients and health care providers.
If you would like to know more or get involved, please contact us by email.
Would you like to join the Digital Health Advisory Committee?
Did you know that you can contribute to the advancement of this project and similar initiatives to the benefit of our region's patients and service providers? For more information on the activities of the Digital Health Committee, please visit the page Committees and groups.
