Ontario plans to replace disjointed electronic medical records with its own system for family doctors

Examination rooms at a health clinic in Calgary, Friday, July 14, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

The Ontario government says plans are in the works to develop its own electronic medical records system for family doctors that will link the “disconnected” software that currently prevents physicians from sharing information with other health-care professionals.

“As a family doctor myself, I have seen firsthand how frustrating it can be for patients when their medical information that has been collected over a lifetime in their family medicine chart isn’t easily accessible in the rest of the health system when it is needed most,” Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team chair Dr. Jane Philpott said at a news conference on Thursday.

She noted that this is particularly challenging when patients end up in the emergency room.

“Patients want and deserve for everyone in their circle of care to have a comprehensive view of their health information. Their allergies, their medications, their vaccinations, test results, no matter where they were done,” Philpott added.

“When that information is missing it can not only lead to safety risks but it can also lead to unnecessary repeat tests and delays in care.”

According to the provincial government, about 90 per cent of Ontario’s family physicians use some type of electronic medical record (EMR) system, but most of the systems are not compatible with each other.

Adopting the provincewide system will be voluntary but the province said it expects widespread “enthusiasm” from family doctors as the new system is expected to reduce paperwork and costs for physicians, who currently pay to licence and maintain their existing software.

The province noted that it plans to support doctors in the transition to the new system by providing funding for things like migration.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Supply Ontario will soon conduct a “market sounding,” where the province will explore what digital solutions may be available and what vendors are interested in developing a provincewide system.

When asked how the province plans to avoid a repeat of the eHealth scandal in 2009, Jones said the government will ensure potential vendors are aware of their “roles and responsibilities.”

In 2009, Ontario’s auditor examined the fallout of the scandal surrounding the eHealth agency, which was tasked with creating a provincewide electronic health records system in the early 2000s for the then provincial Liberal government.

The auditor found that about $1 billion of taxpayer money was wasted when the agency failed to make significant progress on the plan before it was quietly shut down.

“We want to get rid of those cursed forms that you have to fill out every time you go to a different clinician,” Jones said.

“So being able to do that working with the integrity commissioner, of course, information and privacy commissioner, obviously, to make sure we have a system that communicates regardless of where we are, so lab tests, hospital, primary care providers, we need to make sure that all of those pieces together work and that work will be ongoing with Supply Ontario.”

Ontario boosts funding by $325M

News of the system comes as the province adds an additional $325 million to its $3.4 billion Primary Care Action Plan, which aims to connect every person in Ontario to primary care by 2029. The new funding, the province said, has been allocated to the 2028-29 fiscal year.

In an update on Thursday, the province confirmed that it has now cleared 87 per cent of people, about 200,000 Ontarians, off of the Health Care Connect waitlist and is on track to connect everyone on the list to primary care before the summer.

The province says it attached approximately 330,000 people to primary care in 2025/26. As new and expanded primary care teams are added, the province said it expects 500,000 more people will be connected to primary care in 2026-27.

With files from The Canadian Press