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HRM Recommendations

How are the recommendations to improve HRM progressing?

OntarioMD (OMD) is continuing the themes of the HRM Task Force through the HRM Improvement Recommendations Advisory Committee (HI-RAC). HI-RAC brings together organizations that share accountability for hospital reports and EMR usability to advance HRM Task Force recommendations and improve the user experience. Here are the latest developments: 

Hospital Report Improvement Initiatives 

  • Hospital Pilot: In early 2024, OMD initiated a limited pilot to address the volume of HRM reports from Queensway Carleton Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Lakeridge Health. This pilot centred around the HRM Task Force sending facility recommendations, including:
    • Identifying important information (impression, plan) at the top of reports
    • Reducing the delivery of reports with no significant clinical changes (duplicates and near-duplicates)
    • Minimizing the number of inpatient reports
  • The pilot will end in early 2025 and will provide insights on what other hospitals need to implement the recommendations as well as a toolkit to support hospital adoption. Broader hospital engagement – beyond the limited scope of the pilot – is already underway with a target group of 30 hospitals. OMD continues to support hospitals that implement their own changes to address the volume of HRM reports.
  • Duplicate Faxes: Many hospitals have stopped sending reports by fax that are also delivered through HRM.
  • Preference Management Pilot: In July 2024, OMD launched a pilot with over 200 clinicians to assess the impact of suppressed eNotifications on administrative workload and inbox management. This pilot aims to collect insights pertaining to long-term user preference management options for provincial digital health initiatives. While the initial scope is limited to suppressing eNotifications, expansion in the near term will include the ability to also opt out of receiving COVaxON communications. The pilot has already insulated clinician recipients from thousands of eNotifications, with positive feedback from participants.

EMR Usability Improvement Initiatives 

  • Improved Report mapping and Automatic Categorization: Reducing clinician administrative load by simplifying and enhancing report labeling in the EMR.
  • Augmented Report Handling: Complementary to the HRM Preference Management features being established in the HRM system, enhanced EMR functionality is anticipated to permit rules-based handling of reports within the EMR (e.g., prioritizing reports based on type or content).
  • Report Searchability and Advanced Formatting: OMD is working with partners to:
    • Encourage EMR vendors to consider technology that interprets formatted text and "reads" PDFs 
    • Explore the use of technology solutions, including AI, to assist with report handling and interpretation as well as the issue of duplicate reports. A Request for Proposal was issued to procure a vendor to trial solutions.