THUNDER BAY — Hospitals in Thunder Bay and across northwestern Ontario are now participating in a province-wide system that facilitates the electronic transfer of patients' reports, no matter which facility they have been treated at.
The twelve hospitals belonging to the Northwest Health Alliance are the newest additions to OntarioMD's provincial Health Report Manager digital report delivery system.
According to OntarioMD, a subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association which is funded by the province, this means medical professionals in the northwest will be able to follow up with their patients sooner after they are discharged from other hospitals.
If patients travel to another part of Ontario and go to a hospital while there, their primary care providers will now receive their discharge summaries and other reports from those other hospitals into their Electronic Medical Records.
Ontario MD CEO Sarah Hutchinson says "If a patient from Thunder Bay goes to Niagara Falls on vacation and breaks their arm, their doctor or nurse practitioner in Thunder Bay will receive their diagnostic imaging report from Niagara Falls in their EMR...within minutes and before they come home."
Hutchinson said the patient's primary care provider will then have the information they need to schedule a follow-up appointment, coordinate physiotherapy sooner, and prevent complications.
Participating hospitals in northwestern Ontario include:
- Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
- St. Joseph's Care Group
- Lake of the Woods District Hospital
- Riverside Health Care Facilities
- Dryden Regional Health Centre
- Sioux Lookout Meno-Ya-Win Health Centre
- North of Superior Healthcare Group
- Geraldton District Hospital
- Nipigon District Memorial Hospital
- Atikokan General Hospital
- Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital
- Manitouwadge General Hospital
The provincial system now delivers patient reports from 120 hospital corporations (with more than 250 individual sites) and more than 100 specialty clinics across Ontario to 10,000 physicians and nurse practitioners.
