The Patient Summary may provide the following benefits for providers, patients and the health system as a whole:
- Enhanced communication between health providers: Bridged silos within the health system (e.g. between acute, primary and specialist care, long term care) to enable more effective coordination and transitions of care, in addition to improved support for clinical decision-making. The ability to communicate between different solutions, and/or different jurisdiction also facilitates cross-jurisdictional patient flows.
- Improved provider experience and increased satisfaction: More accessible and better-organized patient information leads to significant time savings, freeing time to spend with patients. Reduced administrative burden, improved workflow efficiencies and more targeted, effective use of practice hours helps prevent clinician burnout and facilitate clinician work-life balance.
- Improved patient experience: Patients do not need to repeat/explain their clinical histories at each new clinical encounter; a greater proportion of the visit can be devoted to strengthening the patient-provider relationship and to the health issue at hand. Patients who are travelling or otherwise outside of their home jurisdiction will find it easier to seek care, as extra-jurisdictional clinicians will have better access to their pertinent health information.
- Improved data quality and currency: Clear, consistent records of past tests and results enable more focused investigations and testing, with reduced redundant/duplicative tests. Patient safety is improved through the availability of more timely, accurate information about the patient’s medical history, potentially preventing harm, delayed care or inappropriate treatments.
- Supports the provision of virtual care: Providers delivering care through different modalities/solutions can access the same health information about a patient. Consistent access to information and better communication also facilitates encounters with unfamiliar providers at the point of care (i.e. a provider delivering care on a telehealth platform to a patient without a regular primary care provider).
- Better health outcomes: Consistent access to health information aids decision-making for clinicians and patients and supports proactive health management. Better coordination and transitions of care help to increase patient safety by improving timeliness of care, reducing duplicative testing and preventing instances of contraindicated medications and/or treatments. More effective care is received more quickly, across health care settings.