The past 12 months were full of new initiatives and product enhancements, so in this month’s Trends & Insights we’re recapping what the Accuro Product team delivered in 2019, from coast to coast.
At the close of every year I like to reflect on what’s been achieved, whether personally or professionally, and what I can learn from for the future. As Director of Product Management, I’m always thinking about market problems and what our long-term strategy is, so it’s important to me to stop and look back. The past 12 months have been a pivotal year in our mission of uniting Canadian healthcare, connecting providers and their patients to information and each other, and I’m proud to share with you some of what our teams have accomplished.
HealthMail
In September, we achieved a very important milestone in our mission, as we had our first Providers communicate with each other via our HealthMail service. If you’re not familiar with HealthMail, it is a secure healthcare communication tool that currently encompasses patient messaging, ePrescribing, Ontario eConsult, and now Provider-to-Provider messaging. With the addition of Provider-to-Provider messaging, you’ll be able to communicate from Accuro to other Accuro clinics, and the communication is saved on your patient chart. While currently in pilot, expect to see Provider-to-Provider Messaging available at no additional cost next year.
Accuro Video Pilot
Earlier in 2019, we also launched our Accuro Video pilot. This brought the Medeo Virtual Care experience into Accuro, with the ability to launch a Video Appointment from your Scheduler and onto your Video Companion App.
ePrescribe in Progress
Our team has also been busy setting up ePrescribing nationally, and we’re seeing over 6,000 prescriptions being sent electronically from Accuro to patients’ preferred Pharmacies every week. With Pharmacists being able to seek clarifications via our HealthMail service, we’re reducing phone calls, faxes, and time spent.
Productivity Quick-Wins
While we’re always working towards our mission, it’s also important to keep our focus on the small changes we can make in Accuro that will have a big impact. We know it’s essential to keep reducing the number of clicks and the amount of time it takes to complete tasks you do repetitively, and this is something I’m particularly passionate about. A few highlights from this year include a new Lab Shortcut to quickly enter Vitals into an Encounter Note; a Generate Letter action that lets you regenerate a rejected referral from the Outstanding Requisitions, Referrals, and Orders window (with attachments already saved); and the ability to use Macros in Batch Billing.
I also want to recognize the work our Product Development team has done in revamping our Accuro Release process, as well as their focused efforts on the speed and performance of Accuro. While these changes may not be as visible, they are just as important to the overall Accuro experience as everything else.
Provincial Initiatives
Provincially, we have been very focused on delivering value across the 6 Canadian provinces we service and supporting the various provincial initiatives.
As I look forward to 2020, I am excited about what we have coming, and I know you will be too. Thank you for a great year. Best wishes for the holiday season.
BC
In British Columbia, we’ve worked with Doctors of BC to develop a series of reports and dashboards for Panel Management. This work allows Primary Care Providers to clean up and manage their Patient Panels.
We have also been actively working alongside regional Specialists to standardize workflow for central intake of referrals and Wait List management as part of the BC Ministry of Health Surgical Services Strategy. To support this initiative, we’ve developed analytics reports to visualize Wait One and Wait Two times.
AB
In Alberta, we supported the Alberta Health Services consolidation of systems and the replacement of all lab feeds with the ConnectCare project. We successfully completed conformance earlier this year and are working with Alberta Health Services on the rollout through the various waves.
In addition, we passed conformance on the Netcare Community Information Integration project, which feeds data from Accuro to Netcare.
SK
In Saskatchewan, we have worked with eHealth Saskatchewan on the pilot and rollout of the eHR Interoperability project. This work feeds data to the provincial eHR Viewer, as well as providing Notifications to you of new content in the eHR.
MB
In Manitoba, we’re working with Shared Health Manitoba on rolling out the Home Clinic Enrollment project. This work is part of the Integrated Specification for the province and allows you to manage patient enrollment and submit enrollment data to the Home Clinic Repository. We are currently preparing to exit the pilot and are pleased to be offering you this functionality.
We have also accepted two new Shared Health Manitoba initiatives – Client Registry and Home Clinic Client Summary services. Expect to see further information about both initiatives in 2020.
ON
In late 2018, QHR successfully completed OntarioMD PC-2018-01 Certification for Accuro EMR. This certification allows Accuro to remain connected to OntarioMD services, such as OLIS and HRM. For the majority of 2019, we were committed to deploying and releasing all required functionality.
I am also pleased to share that QHR was one of the vendors selected to participate in the Digital Health Drug Repository/Digital Health Immunizations Repository initiative with OntarioMD. This work will give you access to view immunization and prescription data directly from Accuro as well as automatically submitting immunization data. As we actively work towards successful completion, you will see this released in 2020.
NS
In Nova Scotia, we continue to work with Nova Scotia Health Authority on various initiatives, including availability of IWK Transcribed Reports, EMR Reporting, Data Migration Standards and Immunization Data submission.