About us
Frequently Asked Questions
- When was eHealth Ontario created?
- What is eHealth Ontario’s mandate?
- Who was doing this work prior to eHealth Ontario?
- How is eHealth Ontario different from the former SSHA or MOHLTC’s eHealth Program?
- What is the purpose of eHealth Ontario?
- What are your priorities?
- Why these priorities?
- What is your budget and how are you funded?
- Where does creating an Electronic Health Record fit into your plan?
- How will you get this all done?
About Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA)
- How much money was spent on SSHA?
- Did SSHA provide value for money?
- What were SSHA’s main achievements?
When was eHealth Ontario created?
In August 2008, Cabinet approved the creation of eHealth Ontario to play the lead role in coordinating the execution of Ontario’s eHealth Strategy. The formation was announced on September 26, 2008.
What is eHealth Ontario’s mandate?
To play the leading role in harnessing information technology and innovation to improve patient care, safety and access in support of the government’s health strategy.
Who was doing this work prior to eHealth Ontario?
Some of the work was managed by Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA) or the eHealth Program of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC). These two organizations will merge to form eHealth Ontario. Other work was executed by other agencies or institutions, some is new.
How is eHealth Ontario different from the former SSHA or MOHLTC’s eHealth Program?
eHealth Ontario’s mandate is greater than that of either of these two former organizations.
What is the purpose of eHealth Ontario?
- To provide a single, harmonized, coherent province-wide eHealth Strategy
- Align all publicly funded eHealth initiatives through a single point of accountability
- Avoid duplication, fragmentation or proliferation of eHealth efforts
- Encompass all health care system information system initiatives that
- Are provincially funded
- Support clinicians and the delivery of patient care
- Are actually or potentially province-wide in scope
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What are your priorities?
We are focused on achieving three clinical priorities:
- Control and manage diabetes more effectively to reduce associated complications and costs.
- Implement on-line management of prescription medications to minimize preventable adverse drug events.
- Reduce waits in Ontario emergency departments and the incidence of inpatients in acute care settings waiting for alternate levels of care.
Why these priorities?
Each will improve the quality of care received by Ontarians, improve clinical outcomes and reduce cost pressures on the acute care organizations by reducing demand growth for their services.
What is your budget and how are you funded?
We are funded by the Ontario government. The total cost of Ontario’s eHealth Strategy is $2.133 billion between 2009-2012.
Where does creating an Electronic Health Record fit into your plan?
Investments in eHealth are underway in many jurisdictions across Canada and abroad. In many cases, they are focused on modernizing health care IT infrastructure and implementing Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Although Ontario aspires to similar long-term objectives, our eHealth Strategy is focused on three clinical priorities – diabetes management; medication management; wait times. In pursuing these immediate clinical imperatives, a strong infrastructure of key systems will be implemented across Ontario. As a result, many of the key cornerstones necessary for a comprehensive Ontario EHR will be in place by 2012 – which will position the province well for achieving its stated goal of a comprehensive EHR by 2015.
How will you get this all done?
Our approach assumes that we can not do it all on our own. We will foster partnerships and collaborate with partner organizations with capacity and expertise to help us get the job done. For instance, we partner with Infrastructure Ontario to leverage their experience and expertise in large scale procurement.
About SSHA
How much money was spent on Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA)?
The province spent approximately $600 million in six years on SSHA.
Did SSHA provide value for money?
Yes. SSHA helped lay the infrastructure upon which eHealth Ontario is building a better, more efficient electronic health strategy for the province.
What were SSHA’s main achievements?
- Built and connected more than 9,000 secure network sites. Today these sites are in:
- All hospitals
- Public Health Units and satellite offices
- Family Health Teams and other physicians practices
- Continuing Care agencies
- Pharmacies
- Cancer Care Ontario, Cardiac Care Network, Trillium Gift of Life, and Air Ambulance operations
- Connected over 500 telemedicine sites across the province to support the Ontario Telemedicine Network
- Built and maintained two highly secure data centres which host key applications being used by health care providers:
- The Master Patient Index, a key component of the Wait Times Information System
- The Ontario Lab Information System, a key component in Ontario's diabetes strategy, soon to be made accessible to all physicians
- The OntarioMD portal, a secure internet website used regularly by 3,000 physicians to access drug safety information and tools to assist with providing best practice care. This will be a key platform for the diabetes and ePrescribing applications now underway
- The Drug Profile Viewer, now accessible in every emergency department across in Ontario – enabling physicians to look up the prescription drug history of those over 65
- All systems that support the Ontario Telemedicine Network
- All systems used by Community Care Access Centres