Ontario Government Plans to Reduce Administrative Burden on Primary Care Providers
The Ontario government announced plans to take further action to help primary care providers spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork. Changes to reduce administrative burden include:
- encouraging employers to use other tools instead of sick notes (ex. attestations);
- expanding an artificial intelligence innovative program to automatically summarise and transcribe patient conversations who consent into electronic medical notes;
- replacement of fax machines;
- expanding eServices to digitize referral and consultation forms;
- improving eForms platform to use more digital tools to autofill and share forms;
- streamlining and simplifying 12 key government medical forms with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA); digitizing and integrating forms into electronic medical records;
- accelerating the expansion of a centralized waitlist program for surgical and diagnostic services.
For the full announcement visit here. These initiatives, aim to free 95,000 hours annually for physicians and other primary care providers to care for their patients.