Primary care practices have been digitally isolated from the rest of the health care system.  This has negatively affected patient care and increased physician workload.  

As the ETHP (East Toronto OHT) evolves into an integrated care delivery system, it is critical that appropriate IT and digital technologies are in place to provide the infrastructure that enables a connected and integrated health system.  Broad, regional and provincial wide IT infrastructure discussions are taking place at the OHT.  Decisions with long term ramifications that affect your daily clinical practice are being considered now.  

The Digital Navigation work supports the development, co-design, adoption, and evolution of digital health initiatives that support primary care providers and the East Toronto patient population.

Current Initiatives

Secure Messaging (Provider-to-provider)

• Hypercare provides secure messaging via phone or web browser to communicate with other healthcare providers within the EasT-FPN and at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH), and to connect with the SCOPE program (see details on SCOPE below)

• Hypercare is available to all Family Physicians and Nurse Practitioners who are active in East Toronto and credentialed with MGH.

• Read here how Hypercare is being used and for success stories of improved patient care, including preventing emergency department visits.

e-Referral

• Ocean eReferral is continuing to expand in East Toronto with the support of EasT-FPN - enhancing communication between primary care providers and specialists/organizations and simplifying the referral process, and improving the patient experience

• Ocean eReferral is offered with change management services for adoption and implementation at no cost to family physicians and nurse practitioners.

• Learn more about the 100+ Toronto specialists and clinics receiving e-referrals here

• Join the 130+ family doctors and nurse practitioners in East Toronto already on board, and sign up for Ocean eReferral here

Online Appointment Booking (OAB)

• Online appointment booking (OAB) solutions improve patient access to family doctors and nurse practitioners, and through automated appointment confirmations, and reminders, can reduce missed appointments, and booking confusion, and decrease the administrative burden for clinics.

• New funding is available to cover technology fees and change management initiatives associated with adopting OAB.

SCOPE

• EasT-FPN continues to support the expansion of the SCOPE program for family doctors and nurse practitioners in East Toronto

• The program provides direct access to navigation and a range of specialists in a timely manner to help primary care providers provide the best care to their patients, so as to best support the day-to-day work of primary care

• Click here for more information, and to sign-up to access the spectrum of SCOPE services

EMERGING INITIATIVES

Digital Front Door (DFD)

• EasT-FPN is supporting the ongoing development of a next generation Digital Front Door. This platform is intended to provide an accessible entry point for patients to tell their own “enriched stories.” The goal is to provide digital navigation to the most appropriate service across East Toronto services, and a significantly improved patient experience.

Anticipatory and Integrated Primary Care Program

• The Digital Health team at EasT-FPN is contributing to the development of a platform to proactively anticipate individual- and population-level health needs and connect with appropriate health services by leveraging and linking existing databases.

“Axe the Fax”

• EasT-FPN is engaging with the Ministry of Health to provide input and consultation regarding needs, priorities and opportunities for the evolution of fax-based communications in East Toronto.

If you are interested to learn more or want to be engaged email us at contact@eastfpn.org.

MRP: Dr. Stephen Pomedli