TORONTO, June 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OntarioMD is excited to announce that it has successfully integrated Health Report Manager (HRM) with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). This vital, direct new link between CAMH’s sites and community-based family physicians and specialists is facilitating the continuity of care for patients experiencing mental health and addictions issues. Family physicians and specialists are now receiving medical record reports from CAMH for their patients and are better informed to address and respond to their patients’ needs.  

The addition of CAMH as an HRM sending facility removes the technology barrier of communication between the hospital and community-based family physicians and specialists. HRM provides secure delivery of medical reports directly to community-based providers’ electronic medical records (EMRs) within minutes of transcription by CAMH clinicians, helping reduce providers’ reliance on less secure methods of report delivery, such as mail or fax.

CAMH adds to HRM’s ability to enhance care for the one in five Ontarians directly or indirectly affected by mental illness and addictions. CAMH joins other specialized provincial mental health care providers such as Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences and the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington (CMHA WW) in sending patients’ select medical reports to physicians enabling better communications and coordination between these health care sites and patients’ family physicians and specialists (e.g. psychiatrists).

“HRM delivers the right information to the right doctor electronically – integrated into the electronic medical record of their patient,” said OntarioMD CEO Sarah Hutchison. “Physicians know much sooner that their patients received care at CAMH, Ontario Shores, or a CMHA site and can follow up with patients earlier and provide necessary services for those patients who need coordinated care and supports.”

“The integration between CAMH and OntarioMD’s Health Report Manager is a significant step towards the continuity of care. Family physicians will have seamless access to their patients’ mental health information, expediting treatment and support from a whole health perspective,” stated Damian Jankowicz, VP, Information Management, Chief Information Officer & Chief Privacy Officer at CAMH.

“For CMHA WW, this integration enables the secure delivery of psychiatric consultation documents, psychiatric progress notes, and psychiatric closure summaries directly into the primary care clinicians’ certified electronic medical records (EMRs),” said Helen Fishburn, Senior Director of Service and System Transformation.

“Ontario Shores has fully integrated HRM across its clinical programs. This tool enables clinicians to provide assessment information, progress reports, consult summaries and discharge notes to family physicians in a timely and secure manner to ensure a seamless transition of information as patients move across the continuum of care,” says Sanaz Riahi, Senior Director, Professional Practice and Clinical Information.

HRM is an award-winning digital health solution developed by OntarioMD. Today, almost 9,000 family physicians are receiving reports through HRM, and this number is projected to increase to 15,000 within the next two years.  HRM delivers hundreds of types of reports pertaining to the patient's condition so their primary care providers can act quickly and reliably.

HRM has been valuable to the health care system. In addition to sending patient reports digitally which increases speed and security, it has also saved the Ontario health care system millions of dollars which would have been spent on printing, postage, faxing and time. This translates into a cost avoidance of an average of $15 million a year and is set to increase each year.¹

About OntarioMD
OntarioMD is the leader in primary care digital health in Ontario and is a valuable system partner for other organizations who wish to implement their solutions to the primary care sector. It manages programs and services that connect physician practices that use certified EMRs to more patient data collected outside primary care settings. OntarioMD also supports Ontario's physicians with practical advice from Peer Leaders and experienced Practice Advisors who help them optimize their EMR use to enhance patient care and achieve greater practice efficiency. The organization offers valuable, fully-accredited educational opportunities for physicians annually at its conferences and seminars.

Over 16,000 clinicians are participating in OntarioMD services: Health Report Manager (HRM), eNotifications, Provincial eConsult Initiative, OLIS Deployment, EMR Physician Dashboard, Peer Leader Program, EMR Practice Enhancement Program, EMR Adoption Program. For more information about these services, please visit OntarioMD.ca.

For more information:
Kathy Tudor
Director, Communications & Marketing
OntarioMD
416-623-1248 x5460

www.ontariomd.ca
@OntarioEMRs

¹ Source: Deloitte Inc., HRM Value Assessment

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/320c4b5f-a599-4373-9b46-cfcd072aa4a1