As part of eHealth Saskatchewan's roadmap to improve the flow of data to and from Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and other clinical systems, the EMR Interoperability initiative will be offered to providers using the Accuro EMR in the spring of 2019, and those using Med Access in mid 2023.
EMR Interoperability focuses on enabling the flow of clinical information from point of care systems to the provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR), and notifying providers when key clinical information is available for patients under a provider's care. By doing so, this will improve providers' access to appropriate clinical information in a timely manner to support informed clinical decision-making.
EMR Interoperability offers two key features/functionalities:
- The first item is notifications. Providers can sign up to receive notifications in either the EMR or the eHR Viewer. This will deliver notifications when key clinical documents and updates for their patients are available in the provincial eHR. Notifications include timely updates regarding patient deaths and awareness of hospital admissions/discharges.
- Notifications will also allow providers to choose to have certain reports and results stored in their EMRs such as diagnostic imaging reports, discharge summaries, and other clinical documents from hospitals as appropriate.
- The goal of notifications is to support timely information flow to support patient care.
- The other key area that the EMR Interoperability initiative supports is the flow of EMR visit data to the provincial eHR. EMR users will be able to contribute to the provincial patient record by submitting key patient EMR data such as the patient's surgical history, conditions, allergies and intolerances, etc.
- The EMR data will then be viewable in the provincial eHR Viewer by care teams.
- The goal of contributing EMR visit data to the provincial eHR is to support continuity of care and information flow.
It is important to note that to participate in EMR Interoperability, users will be required to have an eHR Viewer account at a minimum. If clinics use an EMR, it will also be required that the launch in context functionality is enabled in the EMR.
If you are interested in this functionality please contact your SMA Practice Advisor or PHC Site Administrator.
