Speakers
Dr. Erin Keely is Chief, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Ottawa Hospital and Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Obstetrics/Gynecology at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include use of reminders to improve the postpartum screening of women with gestational diabetes, transitions of care and communication between health care professionals
Details
HSPRN hosts a presentation by Dr Erin Keely on an innovative model to support primary care management for people with needs for specialist consultation. This exciting model offers potential for efficient and effective management of chronic disease through collaboration between primary and specialist care.
Specialist care remains an important barrier to access in the Canadian health care system both in terms of long wait times and inequitable access based on geographical location and ability to travel. The Champlain BASE Project is a web-based service developed to enable primary care practitioners to submit specific clinical questions to specialists. The eConsultation applications, including associated forms, automated workflows, and interface engines are based on off-the-shelf components used by many health care organizations across Canada.
Over 200 e-consultations have been sent to various specialties including Dermatology, Endocrinology, Cardiology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Neurology, Internal Medicine, Thrombosis, General Pediatrics, Pediatric hematology/oncology and Diabetes Educators. Through focus groups, individual interviews and user surveys, we have determined that satisfaction is high, and that in over 35% of cases a face to face consultation was contemplated but now avoided.
Key success factors, barriers and future plans will be discussed. Lessons learned in this project could lead to the development of a generalizable model of eConsultation to be used in Ontario and across Canada.