Alberta launches eReferrals for several conditions

EDMONTON – Orion Health, a leader in population health management solutions, has announced that its electronic referral management solution (eReferral) is now available province-wide in Alberta for referrals made to lung cancer, breast cancer, and hip & knee joint replacement surgery.

This eReferral implementation is one of Canada’s first paperless referral solutions and allows Alberta Netcare users the ability to securely submit, track and manage referrals in real time. The eReferral is a key innovation in advancing health services, and will help to improve communications and consistency between care providers and their patients.

There are challenges, waste and barriers associated with manually sharing patient information throughout the referral process. The eReferral solution replaces traditional paper referrals with a computer system, which enables providers to fill out standardized referral information which is instantaneously delivered to a specialist or care facility. At any time during the referral process the referral can be tracked and details viewed. eReferrals can be processed securely by multiple professionals, which in turn helps to reduce wait time.

The automated referral solution will increase the overall efficiency of referral submissions as it reduces the likelihood of lost, duplicated or incomplete forms. The Orion Health eReferral system uses a standardized template and checks the document for completeness before the form can be submitted. This ensures that healthcare facilities receive proper information about a patient and allows for improved patient safety.

“We’re excited for this to become accessible to Canadians, and we believe that it will help assist communications between providers and their patients,” said Gary Folker (pictured), SVP and Country Manager for Orion Health Canada. “Our solution allows healthcare providers to collaborate on why the patient has been referred to them and who has made the referral, thus leading to overall better informed decisions.”

The Alberta solution includes a Health Services Catalogue that gives referring care providers instant access to information on medical locations, zones, their specialties, their available providers and those providers’ approximate wait times. Patients will have more control over selection of appointments that are more convenient and better suited to them.

Alberta’s eReferral has been rolled out for lung cancer, breast cancer, and hip & knee joint replacement surgery, and is available to referring care providers across the province that have access to Alberta Netcare.

For more information on the eReferral solution, please visit www.orionhealth.com.

About Orion Health Ltd

Orion Health is a leading population health management company, and is one of the world’s leading providers of electronic health records (EHRs) and healthcare integration solutions to healthcare organizations. Worldwide, Orion Health solutions are used in 30 countries by more than 300,000 clinicians. In Canada, thousands of clinicians and hundreds of provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems and EHRs, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care. Orion Health is a preferred Canada Health Infoway Solution. More information can be found at http://www.orionhealth.com.