The North East Local Health Integration Network region is one of the province’s highest users of Ontario Telemedicine.
With that in mind, the North East LHIN has helped to launch an eReferral and intake process for the region’s six North East Joint Assessment Centres, located in Little Current, North Bay, Parry Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Timmins.
Now, patients can receive email updates to keep them informed about developments with their Telemedicine referral, the ability to confirm appointment dates and times by email, and the use of secure data encryption to transfer information. More than 1,400 referrals were processed by the new system from the time of its mid-August launch until early December.
A referring provider can ask a specialist questions about their patient and receive advice quickly and securely without the need for the patient to visit the specialist directly. The North East LHIN had over 4,700 consults sent this year, making it one of the largest users of the system.
Northern hospital patients will benefit from having a complete patient record that moves with them within and between Northeastern Ontario hospitals thus reducing unnecessary tests and improving patient safety
ONE is a project involving the North East LHIN and 24 acute care hospitals. The vision is “one person, one record, one system” to use common technology, an integrated electronic medical record system, and clinical standards based on hospital best practices. When ONE is fully implemented, patients and care providers will benefit from a world-class system.
Northeastern Ontario will become one of only a few regional health care networks to use a single Health Information System. In 2018, ONE started its first wave of transforming patient care, beginning with work to create a new Health Information System at North Bay Regional Health Centre, Sault Area Hospital, and West Parry Sound Health Centre.
