eCE West Deployment Team Quarterly Newsletter

Dear Ontario Health West Community:


Welcome to the fourth eCE West Deployment Team Newsletter for health care professionals in the West Region.


The West Deployment Team (DT) at the eHealth Centre of Excellence supports the deployment of eConsult in South West and Waterloo Wellington, and eReferral across South West, Waterloo Wellington and Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant, partnering with Ontario Health West for change management support in Erie St. Clair.

In this Issue:


  • eReferral Onboarding Update
  • Ocean Update – Expanded Filtering Options
  • eReferral Helpful Tips:
  • Enhancing the Patient Experience Through eReferral Emails
  • Anticipated Time to Appointment Feature
  • Extending the Amount of Time eReferrals are Retained
  • Discover newly added services and programs accepting eReferrals
  • Discover new specialists available to respond to your eConsults
  • Updated destination lists for both eReferral and eConsult
  • West Region Highlights
  • Quarterly Spotlight – Erie St. Clair and South West Cataract Central Intake
  • Contact Information

eReferral Onboarding Update

There is currently a pause on onboarding new eReferral senders and receivers while Ontario Health is undergoing a public procurement through a Request for Proposal for Vendor(s) of Record to provide eReferral Management Solution(s).

If you are already set up with eReferral and need support or additional training, please reach out to your Change Management Specialist, or email eReferral@ehealthce.ca.

Please fill out the following form to be added to our onboarding queue: eReferral Onboarding Queue Form

Ocean Update - Enhanced Filtering

Some recent updates to Ocean's filtering functionality were made at the end of July 2024. These enhancements were made to ensure a more flexible and efficient experience when managing your eReferrals in Ocean. Filters are applied and saved on a user-specific basis, adding efficiency for each user to suit their preferences.

Group-level filters are available across all status folders:



  • Listing Filter: This allows you to filter received eReferrals by the Directory Listing to which they were sent
  • Service Filter: This allows you to filter received eReferrals by the requested Health Service Category (e.g. Orthopedics: Hip, Ultrasound, etc.)
  • Referring Clinicians Filter: This allows you to filter your sent eReferrals by the user who sent them

Folder-specific filters are located on the right. Each status folder will contain specific filters depending on the filtering criteria required in that folder.

eReferral Email to Enhance Patient Experience


The patient experience is greatly improved with the use of eReferral email notifications. Patients whose email addresses were included on the sent eReferral will receive email notifications throughout the referral cycle from receiving sites that have email notifications enabled. These emails are automatically sent when certain changes (listed below) are made to their eReferral.

How this Helps the Patient: Being informed about the various stages of a referral can help ease patient anxiety and improve their referral experience. Email notifications are automatically sent from a ‘no-reply’ email address to keep the patient informed throughout the referral process, beginning when the referral has been sent right up until the final reminder that arrives prior to their scheduled appointment.



How this Helps Your Practice: When patients are kept informed, your staff will receive less phone calls inquiring about referral statuses, and your patients will have an improved experience. These emails are sent automatically with no extra work from you or your staff. No-show rates are also reduced due to the appointment reminder emails.

Examples of automatic emails that will be sent to patients if their email address is included on the referral:


Sent Referral Notification:

When the eReferral is first sent, the patient will receive an email informing them that their health referral has been sent and informs them that they will be notified when an appointment has been booked.



Forwarded Referral:

When the patient’s referral is forwarded from a site - such as a Central Intake - to another site, they will receive an email notifying them of this action.



Referrals with Estimated Wait Times:

When an ‘Anticipated Time to Appointment’ is provided by the referral recipient, the patient will receive an email notifying them of this wait time.





Booked Referrals:

When an appointment has been booked for the patient’s referral, or when booking information has been changed or updated, the patient will receive an email notifying them of their appointment. They can also confirm the appointment from this email.

Appointment Reminders:

Receiving sites are able to set up appointment reminders in their Ocean site (note that some sites utilize other reminder technology and disable this feature).


If eReferral reminders are enabled, the patient will receive reminder notifications before their scheduled appointment which can be customized by the referral recipient (e.g., 7 days before, 1 day before).


Redirected Referral:

If the referral is cancelled by the referrer or declined by the recipient and is subsequently redirected to another provider, the patient will receive an email notifying them of this redirection, as well as the reason for redirection if one was provided by the referring clinician.



If you’d like to expand the number of patient email addresses collected in your practice, we are here to help! Our Change Management Specialists can work with you on strategies to collect more of this information, as well as support you with consent templates, flyers for your waiting room, and more!

Reach out to your Change Management Specialist or to our general inbox (eReferral@ehealthce.ca) at any time!


Anticipated Time to Appointment Feature

Did you know that if an appointment cannot be scheduled right away, eReferral receivers can communicate an Anticipated Time to Appointment to the patient and the referring clinician by selecting the ‘Anticipated Time to Appointment’ dropdown in the eReferral’s ‘Scheduling’ section?

Users can also update the ‘Anticipated Time to Appointment’ field for multiple referrals at the same time by doing the following:

(NOTE: When bulk updating wait times, the wait time email notifications will not be sent to patients)

1. From your main Ocean portal screen, select ‘Update Wait Times’ in the bottom left corner.

2. Enter the criteria that will be used to find and update matching not-booked referrals.

Wait Time 1: Time from the sending of the referral to the date of the first consultation.

Wait Time 2: Time between the first consultation and the surgery/intervention.

3. Click ‘Update Wait Times’ when complete.

A message will appear indicating how many eReferrals were updated with the wait time.


Extending the Amount of Time eReferrals are Retained

The default storage time for eReferrals in the Ocean portal is 1 year after the eReferral is sent/received. When an Ocean site receives a warning that eReferrals are scheduled for removal, these referrals will move to the ‘Deletion Warning’ folder. Users can extend the amount of time that Ocean retains these referrals by one of the following methods:

1. Add an Appointment Date: If you are ready to make an appointment for the referral, the referral’s scheduled removal date will be adjusted to 30 days after the appointment date you just provided.


2. Add an Anticipated Time to Appointment: If you are not ready to provide an exact appointment date for the referral, you can add an ‘Anticipated Wait Time to Appointment’ in the Scheduling section of the eReferral. The scheduled removal date will be adjusted to 60 days after the estimated wait time. (Example: If the referral was sent July 31, 2023 and was scheduled for removal on July 31, 2024, entering an Anticipated Wait Time of 18 months would give you a total of 20 months, and the referral would therefore be scheduled to be removed March 31, 2025).


3. Extend the Scheduled Removal Date: If your eReferral is scheduled to be removed from your Ocean site but you are not yet able to provide an exact appointment date, you can extend the scheduled removal date by 60 days. To do this, open your ‘Deletion Warnings’ folder and click the refresh symbol on the far right (see below for example):

4. Assign the eReferral for Review: If the eReferral requires the attention of someone at your site, you can assign it to them in Ocean for review. This will change the scheduled removal date to 365 days after the review was requested. (See Ocean’s website for instructions on how to assign to another user on your Ocean site).


eReferral and eConsult in the West Region

Discover newly added services and programs live on Ocean eReferral and new Specialists who have been onboarded to respond to eConsults!

eReferral

  • Dr. David Plemel - Ophthalmology (London)
  • Dr. Maya Tong - Ophthalmology (London)
  • Dr. Shaobo Lei - Ophthalmology (Windsor)
  • Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic – Western University/Fanshawe (London)
  • House of Sophrosyne (Windsor)
  • North Lambton CHC – Hepatitis C / Harm Reduction Care Team (Forest)
  • Waterloo Medical Weight and Wellness Clinic – Dr. Jennifer Dignam (Waterloo)


eConsult *SW & WW only

  • Dr. Cara MacRae – Pediatrics (WW)
  • Dr. Paul Straus – Obstetrics and Gynecology (WW)
  • Dr. Sanjeeban Mishra – Clinical Immunology and Allergy/Internal Medicine (WW)
  • Dr. Samira Jeimy – Clinical Immunology and Allergy (SW)
  • Dr. Vitor Breda – Psychiatry (SW)
  • Dr. Ayler Ansarian – Psychiatry (WW)

Check Out Our Destination Lists:

eReferral Destinations:


WATERLOO WELLINGTON
SOUTH WEST
HAMILTON NIAGARA HALDIMAND BRANT
ERIE ST. CLAIR

eConsult Specialists:


WATERLOO WELLINGTON
SOUTH WEST
HAMILTON NIAGARA HALDIMAND BRANT

Contact: eConsult@HITSeHealth.ca

ERIE ST. CLAIR

Contact: digitalhealth@transformsso.ca

* NOTE: TransForm Shared Services Organization in Erie St. Clair (ESC) and HITs eHealth Office in the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) region, support the deployment of eConsult in their respective regions. For more information, please visit their websites, or email TSSO at digitalhealth@transformsso.ca, or HITs at eConsult@HITSeHealth.ca.

Highlights in the West Region

eReferral (as of August 9, 2024)

  • 1,349,629+ eReferrals processed across West region
  • 3,670 Adopted eReferral senders
  • 1,543 Specialists and specialty services receiving eReferrals
  • 558,067+ Patients supported

* NOTE: Sender data reported in previous West DT Newsletters and Regional Quarterly Updates reflected the total number of referrers who sent eReferrals into the West Region, regardless of their location. The data above and Sender data going forward will reflect the number of senders located within the West Region only.

eConsult *SW & WW only (as of August 9, 2024)

  • 92,990 eConsults sent across SW and WW
  • 1,915 Primary Care Clinicians with OTNhub access
  • 323 Registered Specialists
  • <1 day Median response time

Regional eReferral Highlights

*Data above as of August 9, 2024. NOTE: Sender data reported in previous West DT Newsletters and Regional Quarterly Updates reflected the total number of referrers who sent eReferrals into the West Region, regardless of their location. The data above and Sender data going forward will reflect the number of senders located within the West Region only.

Quarterly Spotlight -

ESC & SW Cataract Central Intake

The Erie St. Clair and South West Cataract Central Intake went LIVE on Ocean eReferral at the end of March 2024, and has had a successful first quarter processing referrals for non-urgent cataract surgery consults. The Central Intake, hosted by St. Joseph's Health Care London, has 22 participating Ophthalmologists in the SW and ESC regions, and in the first quarter processed over 1200 referrals from over 110 senders!


Central intake participation benefits include supporting patient access to care with the potential to reduce wait times, offering a single point of contact with a standard referral form, allowing for improved communication pathways, equitable distribution of referrals, increased insights, and greater consistency of quality referral data.

To submit a non-urgent cataract referral, click the link for your region below!

Erie St. Clair Cataract Central Intake

South West Cataract Central Intake

Interested in eServices?

Interested in eReferral?


Clinics/clinicians can complete our:

eReferral Expression of Interest

to be added to our onboarding queue.

Interested in eConsult?


Clinicians can complete our Intake Form for Specialists or Intake Form for Primary Care

For more information visit us online: Ontario eServices Program

www.ehealthce.ca

Share eCE West Deployment Team Quarterly Newsletter on Facebook Share eCE West Deployment Team Quarterly Newsletter on Twitter Share eCE West Deployment Team Quarterly Newsletter on Linkedin Email eCE West Deployment Team Quarterly Newsletter link
<span class="translation_missing" title="translation missing: en-US.projects.blog_posts.show.load_comment_text">Load Comment Text</span>