Electronic Medical Records in Canada

Today, in Canada about 85% of patient care is done at the community level. The care providers are general practitioners, primary care teams, long term care and home care facilities, and local hospitals. In 2008, there were 335 million office visits to doctors by patients in Canada. About 95% resulted in handwritten paper work.

Those rooms filled with paper patient records are slowly being converted into organized and accessible electronic files via electronic medical record systems (EMR). EMRs are local records specific to a facility or network of care. The EMR system provides doctors, patient care teams, nurses, and office staff with electronic access to patient information and includes decision support, billing and office administration tools. The EMR system records patient information in an electronic format. All medical information that goes to a doctor’s office is captured and placed into the patients’ EMRs. This includes lab results, images, and consultant and hospital notes. This provides a complete picture of the patient’s medical profile.

EMRs relate to EHRs (Electronic Health Records). EMRs are key in developing a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR). The EHR is a secure and private network of systems that connect all of the touch points of patient care, including public health, primary care offices, health centers, hospitals. long term care locations, labs, pharmacies, and diagnostic imaging facilities.

EMRs are the on the front line of health care delivery. They provide essential information to be captured into a comprehensive EHR. As the EHRs are built and integrated, EMR systems will both draw from and add to the information in the EHR. Together, EMRs and EHRs will provide a comprehensive overview of a patient’s medical situation to authorized users of the systems.

Contact SpectraScribe at info@spectrascribe.com to learn how our transcription services can help you implement your EMR.