Electronic Health Records in Canada & Literature Review Example

An electronic health record that'south accessible in every province and territory would save lives. But it's still unlikely to happen, says Dr. Brian Goldman.

A Canadian medical journal editorial says nosotros should select a single software system and make information technology the national electronic health record. (Shutterstock)

In Canada, health care may be portable beyond the provinces, but wellness records are not. An editorial published in the Canadian Medical Clan Journal calls for a national electronic health record for all Canadians. It too suggested that it's time for health care to ditch antiquated applied science including fax machines.

Dr. Nav Persaud, the author of the editorial, said Canada should build a single national electronic wellness record or EHR from the basis upwards, beginning with main intendance or family medicine. Persaud, from the department of family unit and community medicine at the University of Toronto, said nosotros should select a single software system and get in the official electronic record. That would mean looking at all existing EHRs out there and deciding which is the best one to adopt after consulting with stakeholders including health professionals and patients.

To go past political wrangling, Persaud suggests giving Canadian Wellness Infoway the job of selecting the best EHR. It's a pan-Canadian institution with a mandate to promote digital health records that already reports to the provinces and territories.

Every bit an ER physician, access to the records of my patients is incomplete and inconsistent. This is especially true when it comes to visitors from other provinces. Typically, the patient's health record is on a newspaper chart in a family dr.'s office. In an emergency, I have footling or no access to that. A growing number of family physicians and clinics use off-the-shelf electronic wellness records that they've purchased. Unfortunately, I don't accept access to these either. And electronic health records from competing suppliers don't link upward to one another, to lab and Ten-ray clinics and to hospital records.

Equally anachronistic as this may seem, fax machines still play a meaning role in transmitting medical information. (Shutterstock)

As a result, physicians like me treat patients from down the street or from other provinces based on incomplete information in a patchwork arrangement.

The main reason I believe why we don't have a national EHR is that health care is a provincial responsibility. It's customary for the federal authorities to stay out provincial jurisdiction. One exception is the federal government's efforts to adopt a national pharmacare plan. The second reason is a lack of leadership on implementing a national health record. Some provinces such as Alberta are head and shoulders ahead of other provinces. I'd beloved to see Alberta have the lead on this.

Secure records

Likewise, in a arrangement dominated by the provinces, physicians take a lot of clout. Every bit suggested in the editorial, some doctors may bristle at being told which EHR they take to use. Another reason for no motility on the EHR file is the provinces' aversion to any innovation that might not be secure enough to satisfy provincial privacy officers. As a result, nosotros operate under the motto, "If it own't bankrupt, don't fix it."

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As anachronistic as this may seem, right now, fax machines play a significant role in transmitting medical data. For example, if I need records from a hospital in another province or territory, I have to fax a request for those records along with the patient's authorization. Then, I promise that someone in wellness records in the out-of-province infirmary retrieves the fax, gathers the records and faxes them to my infirmary.

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Canada is not solitary in its seeming devotion to fax machines. Britain'due south National Wellness Service says it still has close to 9,000 of them notwithstanding in use. In December the British regime appear that the NHS volition be banned from buying fax machines beginning this month, and has been told by the government to phase out the machines entirely past Apr 1, 2020.

In medical culture, at that place's a bizarre belief that fax machines are more secure and more private than email or secure web sites. That'due south despite the fax there are notorious examples of patient health records and lab reports being faxed to the wrong number.

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Moving to a national EHR makes sense to me. Sill, I think it'south highly unlikely we'll accept a single EHR in family medicine any time soon. I don't see the provinces giving way to a national standard. I don't see a federal authorities of any kind investing the political capital needed to implement an EHR.

That means it will remain hard to get a complete and articulate movie on the health of our patients peculiarly if and when they receive intendance elsewhere.That lack of timely access to information means patients are at risk of harm from incorrect diagnoses and avoidable side effects on everything from prescription medications to the intravenous dyes radiologists inject when they exercise CT scans and other X-rays.

And, information technology means that fax machines volition go along chugging forth in doctors offices, clinics and hospitals.

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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/a-national-electronic-health-record-for-all-canadians-1.4976932

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