Delivering Faster, Smarter And More Coordinated Patient Care
Work is underway to ensure health care providers will be able to share electronic health information for Greater Toronto Area (GTA) residents, who represent 47% of the province's population.
The ConnectingGTA project will allow 700 service providers to securely share patient health information across the five GTA Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). Currently, electronic health information is shared in silos within the system. Soon, all 700 service providers will be connected under one "electronic roof" - allowing patient information to move from one service provider to another within the system.
Patients will receive better, faster and more coordinated health care from their providers - and providers will be able to share information more effectively. Patients and providers will also benefit from improved productivity and more timely treatment. It will also reduce duplicate tests on patients which will save time and money.
In the project's first months, priority patient data such as clinical reports, diagnostic images, drug information, and lab test results will be shared. Major technology pieces will also be put in place in the coming months to help providers access and exchange information more easily.
The first phase of ConnectingGTA will be completed in 2013.
ConnectingGTA is the latest in a series of eHealth Ontario milestones which include rolling out the Emergency Neuro Image Transfer System (ENITS), the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption program, and the recent EMR procurement initiative for Ontario's Community Health Centres.