A new integrated online service by eHealth Saskatchewan should improve access to electronic health records by clinicians across the province.
The Saskatchewan eHealth Portal - developed by medical software company Orion Health - will offer care providers unified electronic access to all of the essential parts of a patient's medical record.
"When [a clinician] goes into the portal, the plan is to actually see all of the information about a patient: their lab results, their drugs, their diagnostic imaging, their discharge summaries - anything that's clinically relevant," Brenda Jameson, eHealth Saskatchewan's vice-president of information technology, told Yorkton This Week.
This information is already accessible through three separate provincial electronic health record repositories, but the new software will centralize all of the data through an internet portal - in effect allowing a patient's medical file to follow him or her anywhere in the province, from doctor's office to hospital to pharmacy.
"Hopefully it'll improve access and timeliness of patient care," said Jameson, "so when a patient presents for service, all clinically relevant information about them will be available very quickly."
The portal should also make these records accessible to providers who lacked access previously, including pharmacists, home care nurses, and some family physicians. Lab results will be stored in a single location, reducing the need for duplicate tests. Doctors will be able to issue prescriptions through the system and have them instantly read by pharmacists.
The specific information available to each of these professionals is restricted on a "need-to-know" basis. Patients can also request to have their entire file masked by contacting eHealth Saskatchewan's privacy line.
The Saskatchewan eHealth Portal is now undergoing pilot testing by about 25 clinicians around the province, none of whom are in the Sunrise Health Region. Once fully tested, the system will be rolled out gradually across Saskatchewan.
Jameson could offer no estimates on when the portal will reach the Sunrise Health Region.
