Ensuring Seamless Information Delivery to BC’s Electronic Medical Records: Achieving Interoperability

The Doctors of BC supports a fully integrated health information system with appropriate privacy protection. This system must include the ability for physician electronic medical records (EMRs) to receive information seamlessly from the Ministry of Health and health authorities. This is called interoperability, and the provincial government must make it a priority in order to provide safe, effective support for health professionals providing care. Successful implementation of health information systems in British Columbia requires the following:

• The provincial government must move toward systems that fully interact with one another. Cheaper “viewer only” systems that only permit one to look at data are not practical and do not support care quality and safety.
• The provincial government must establish interoperability standards and a provincial identity management strategy that ensures safe, effective, and rapid transmission of data at the point of care.
• A reliable and effective system for the electronic ordering and delivery of information must be put in place so that physicians can fully utilise their EMRs to order diagnostic tests, receive test results, electronically prescribe, and send and receive referrals and other types of reports.
• The provincial government must dedicate adequate resources to ensure that physicians do not bear the full costs of achieving interoperability.
• The provincial government must work with physicians to align funding and other incentives (such as support programs) to increase uptake of interoperability functions within the physician community in order to achieve benefits of widespread implementation of EMRs.

For more information, including background, analysis and references, please see the full policy statement.