 BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Sudbury pediatrician Dr. Burke Baird recently referred a young patient who was experiencing seizures to a specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
If he had done this 10 years ago, he would have had to wait up to three months to get a letter about treatment recommendations from the specialist.
But thanks to the electronic Child Health Network (eCHN), which was implemented in Ontario nearly eight years ago, he was able to find the specialist’s report the next time the child visited his office, and implement a new course of treatment immediately.
“We look after a lot of complicated patients here, but sometimes they need care in other places. Because we’re so involved in their care, we really need a good, up-to-date version of their test results and their clinical notes at the other places where the kids go,” he said.
“Because the Hospital for Sick Children rarely sends lab and radiology reports to referring doctors, and because their dicto-typing service is really slow, it can take a long time to get that information. With the network, we can find out what happened in Toronto at the last visit.”
eCHN, which is funded entirely by the provincial Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, is designed to serve approximately three million residents of Ontario who are under the age of 19.
Fifty-two hospitals (including the majority of hospitals with a pediatrician), all 14 Community Care Access Centres, 21 Children’s Treatment Centres and more than 600 physicians have access to the network.
Babies born at a hospital with access to eCHN are entered into the system. The same thing happens when a child is treated at any hospital connected to the network, said Andrew Szende, CEO of eCHN.
While private practice physicians can access the network outside of the hospital, they cannot set up an electronic health record for their patients unless they are treated at a hospital, he said.
Doctors accredited to use eCHN also have the opportunity to use a professional forum maintained by the network. Lectures from distinguished doctors and researchers visiting member hospitals are filmed and posted on eCHN.
The system operates on the highly secure ONE Network, a private network owned by the province’s Smart Systems for Health Agency.
“We also make sure that the only people who can access the data are people who have been given a username and password by their own institution,” said Szende.
“For example, we would require Sudbury Regional Hospital to accredit a user before a user is able to access any of the data. If you don’t have an affiliation with any of the hospitals, you have to be accredited to use the network by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.”
The network benefits patients, parents and health care workers in many ways, he said.
It provides faster access to care because doctors don’t have to spend time waiting for reports from specialists, said Szende.
The network also spares children from having to endure uncomfortable diagnostic tests more than necessary, because the results would be at their doctors’ fingertips, he said. The onus on parents to remember what the specialist said about their children’s condition is also reduced.
Health care administrators from other parts of the country who want to set up similar electronic medical records often come to eCHN asking for advice, he said.
“We get a lot of invitations to talk to people about what we do and how we do it. We get a lot of visitors. Word does travel, and people seek us out, and then they’re surprised by what they discover.”
Szende said he hopes every person in Ontario, regardless of age, will soon have an electronic medical record.
“Just because you’re over 19 years old doesn’t mean you don’t have the same health needs as a child,” he said.
“There should be a shared electronic record for the whole population. If you’re seen at a hospital anywhere in Ontario, it should be possible for your doctor to get access to that record electronically and immediately.”
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