The government of Ontario, as part of its Primary Care Action Plan initiative, plans to create a provincewide connected medical records system.

The goal is to streamline information sharing across the province’s medical system to improve patient care and reduce administrative burdens on clinicians.

“Through our Primary Care Action Plan, we are connecting more people to care and have already exceeded our 2025-26 attachment target,” said Sylvia Jones, deputy premier and minister of health, in a release announcing the initiative. “By launching a provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system, we are making care more connected and convenient so patients don’t have to repeat their medical history and clinicians can focus on providing excellent patient care, instead of unnecessary paperwork.”

“Building a modern, connected primary care system is essential to improving the health of Ontarians,” Dr. Jane Philpott, chair of the Primary Care Action Team, said in the same release. “We are adding clinical capacity with more funding for team-based care. Now we are adding the Primary Care Medical Record system which will give clinicians the tools they need to deliver more coordinated, patient centred care, while reducing administrative burden and improving outcomes.”

Electronic medical records are secure digital versions of patients’ medical charts that allow primary care clinicians to capture and access medical histories, diagnoses, medications and test results.

Improving medical care

While approximately 90 per cent of Ontario family physicians use electronic medical records, the current systems are fragmented, disconnected and unable to support widespread information sharing.

The proposed provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system will be an interoperable, secure system that will provide clinicians with a complete view of a patient’s health history, improving coordination while reducing delays caused by missing records, the government release states.

At a press conference at the Humber River Health centre, Jones said the Primary Care Medical Record system will “integrate patients records, reduce paperwork for physicians, and improve the quality of care received from our patients."

"Electronic medical records are secure digital versions of patients' medical charts that allow primary care clinicians to capture and access medical histories, diagnosis, medications, test results, and more. The proposed primary care medical record system will be an interoperable, secure system accessible from across Ontario that will provide clinicians with a more complete view of a patient's health history, improving coordination across the health care system. with patient consent,” she added.

The intent is to provide Ontario residents with more seamless care and provide “hundreds of dollars in savings on fees required to transfer medical records between physicians... It will allow clinicians to focus on what matters to them, providing world-class patient care.”

Connecting a disconnected system

This is not the first time the province has tried to roll out a province-wide electronic health records system. Then-Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and his government oversaw eHealth Ontario that was tasked with developing a similar system. 

That project soon foundered and a 2009 Special Report from the Auditor General found cost overruns that amounted to nearly $1 billion with little to show for the spending. The report found “Upfront planning… had not been properly completed until years after the government had launched the initiative.”

The report also took the government to task for overreliance on consultants, more than 300 engaged in the process, and eHealth Ontario awarding millions in untendered contracts. 

When asked how the present government would avoid the missteps that plagued eHealth Ontario, Jones said the government will be entering a “multistep process” to identify vendors who understand their “roles and responsibilities.”

She added interested vendors would need to show they are capable of providing solutions that work across multiple systems and can seamlessly integrate multiple processes in a health care setting “so that people are not wasting their time whether it's clinicians or patients having to repeat their story multiple times.”

Vancouver-based WELL Health Technologies Corp., a digital healthcare company, said it would participate in the forthcoming procurement process led by Supply Ontario to take part in Ontario’s new electric health record initiative.

The company’s WELLSTAR provides EMR technology to primary care physicians in Ontario and across Canada. 

“Ontario’s physicians serve some of the most complex patient populations in the country, often working with multiple, fragmented tools that create unnecessary administrative burden,” said Hamed Shahbazi, CEO of WELL Health in a press release. “A provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system that prioritizes interoperability, security, adherence to provincial certification requirements, and physician choice is the right direction.”