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Novari Health is pleased to announce the successful integration of our referral management solution with the Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.
Novari’s referral management modules are widely deployed in Canada and internationally. They are used by both health regions and individual hospitals to manage the intake, triage, and routing of referrals. Novari technologies process both fax and digital referrals. The software’s unique ability to enable customized local workflows for clinical pathways and central intake processes have resulted in Novari being the leading referral management & central intake solution provider in Canada.
Referrals received by provincial and regional central intake programs can now be electronically sent to hospitals that are using the Epic EHR system. Communication is bidirectional, meaning when administrators and clinicians at these hospitals accept, decline, and schedule patients using their Epic EHR, the information also flows back to Novari and ultimately to the referring provider for end-to-end interoperability.
Referral central intake programs have demonstrated their effectiveness at improving access to care for a wide variety of healthcare services with high volumes and long wait times. Across the country, provincial healthcare systems are “axing the fax” machine and implementing eReferral systems (e.g., OceanMD). At the same time, this effort is being complemented by the introduction of referral central intake programs for many healthcare services including orthopedics, surgery, medical imaging, diabetes, mental health & addictions, endoscopy, wound care, cardiac care, etc.
Novari Health’s referral management technology focuses on enabling complex workflows for regional central intake programs. Referrals may be initiated by physicians using an eReferral system (e.g., OceanMD) or by fax. Referrals are then digitally received, triaged, and processed by specialized regional central intake staff using the Novari referral management technology. Once processed, the referrals are then forwarded to the most appropriate local hospital or provider, based on criteria such as wait times, availability and location. Novari is the only system that can support complex regional workflows, integration with eReferral systems (e.g., OceanMD), fax referrals, and bidirectional integration with hospital EHR systems (e.g., Epic, Oracle Cerner, Meditech, etc.).
Working closely with The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), the Novari-Epic integration was developed to support the regional central intake program for endoscopy referrals in eastern Ontario. The regional central intake program is managed by Ottawa’s Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) and manages colonoscopy referrals for abnormal FIT, surveillance, and screening cases from across the Champlain region. Referrals received by the central intake at QCH can now be electronically routed to hospitals within the region that are using the Epic EHR, including TOH and Hawkesbury and District General Hospital (HDGH). The bidirectional integration operates seamlessly using a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) interface, ensuring a smooth flow of information between Novari and Epic.
“When implementing regional central intake models, Novari’s EHR agnostic approach enables referrals to be electronically received inside each hospital’s EHR. This is of greater importance in regions like eastern Ontario where multiple EHR systems including Epic, Oracle Cerner and Meditech are in use. The implementation of the endo central intake program and the Epic-Novari integration is the result of strong collaboration between teams at Queensway Carleton Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital and Novari Health,” said John Sinclair, CPHIMS-CA, President, Novari Health.
Upon receiving the electronic referrals, TOH and HDGH healthcare professionals can now easily access referrals from their inbox within Epic. This inbox displays all the referral details electronically, including any attachments associated with the patient’s case.
To further enhance the patient experience, Epic sends real-time status updates back to Novari. These updates encompass milestones in the patient journey, including consultation appointments and direct procedure bookings. Novari actively communicates with referring general practitioners (GP) to provide feedback on the referral status. Depending on the method of referral submission, whether fax or OceanMD, GPs receive prompt notifications and updates, keeping them apprised of the patient’s status throughout the full process.
The Ontario Ministry of Health, Ontario Health, OHTs, and hospitals across the province have been working to mitigate the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients waiting for surgery, medical imaging, and many other healthcare services. Having a state-of-the-art wait list management and central intake system complements these efforts for all patients.
Novari Health’s innovative and unique access to care technologies are live and being implemented at hospitals and regional health authorities in Canada and Australia. The Novari access to care platform helps improve access to care, wait times, and efficiencies for a wide variety of health care services including surgery, mental health & addictions, diabetes, cardiac, medical imaging, etc.
About Novari Health
Novari Health designs, builds, and implements award-winning enterprise scale solutions that improve access to care, coordination of care, and the delivery of healthcare services. Headquartered in Canada, with offices in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, Novari is one of the fastest growing digital health solution providers. ISO 27001 certified, Novari Health is a Microsoft Partner, with software solutions hosted on Microsoft Azure’s global network of data centres. For more information, visit novarihealth.com.