Volume 16 | Spring 2022
HITS eHealth Office
eServices Insider
Reducing Specialist Wait Times
with The Ontario eServices Program

Patients across Canada continue to face substantial delays when accessing specialist care. According to a study published in Canadian Family Physician in 2020, the national median wait time for all referrals (including urgent) was 78 days, or 11 weeks, with 1 in 4 patients having to wait 175 days (25 weeks) or longer for their specialist appointment. One in 10 referred patients had no record of seeing the specialist within 1 year.

The Ontario eServices Program, which offers two Ontario Health funded digital health solutions, eConsult and eReferral, seeks to address this challenge and significantly reduce wait times for patients in Ontario.
eConsult, hosted on OTNHub, allows primary care providers to seek advice from specialists prior to initiating a referral or as a way to manage a patients' care while they wait for their specialist appointment.
eReferral enhances communication between primary care providers and specialists/organizations by enabling quick and secure referrals to be sent and received through an electronic platform, including many commonly used EMRs.
eServices Deployment Teams across the province, including the HITS eHealth Office, are available to help identify your needs and support you through the process of integrating one or both solutions into your clinical workflow at no cost to you. 

Please reach out to us at econsult@hitsehealth.ca to receive support or request more information about The Ontario eServices Program.

Source: Liddy C, Moroz I, Affleck E, et al. How long are Canadians waiting to access specialty care? Retrospective study from a primary care perspective. Can Fam Physician. 2020;66(6):434-444.
HNHB Specialists Available on eConsult
Did you know there are now over 300 specialists from Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) region that are available to answer your eConsults on OTNHub?

Specialists participating in the Ontario eConsult Program are committed to improving access to specialty care in Ontario and reducing wait times for patients. All specialists are vetted prior to enrolling as consulting specialists in the service and are expected to provide collegial and educational responses to eConsults in less than 7 business days. Currently, the median response time in Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) region is less than one day.

Specialists who participate in a Provincial or HNHB BASE™ Managed Specialty Groups are recruited, have over 5 years of experience in their specialty and indicate a desire to contribute to knowledge sharing and education with primary care providers.

In addition, the HITS eHealth Office oversees these groups, which means we’re able to support if response times are delayed due to specialist unavailability or you’re finding a particular specialist isn’t providing high quality responses.

Have you tried sending an eConsult to one of our 34 HNHB BASE™ Managed Specialty Groups?
The HNHB BASE™ Managed Specialty Groups are supported by local specialists practicing in Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) region.

The benefits of sending your eConsult to these groups include specialist awareness of local services and supports and increasing collaboration and knowledge transfer between providers practicing in the same region.

Click to view our list of groups and learn how to set your Priority Region on OTNHub to allow your eConsults to be sent to a local group by default.
Evaluating Use of eConsult
During COVID-19 Pandemic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced many clinicians to rapidly adopt changes in their practice. In this study published in Telemedicine and eHealth, The Utilization of an Electronic Consultation Service During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic, patterns of utilization of Ontario eConsult before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were compared, to assess COVID 19's impact on how eConsult is used. 
14 New Provincial BASE™ 
Managed Specialty Groups
The following Provincial BASE™ Managed Specialty Groups are now available to all primary care providers using eConsult:

  • Abortion Care
  • Breast Oncology
  • Gastrointestinal Oncology
  • Lung Oncology
  • Malignant Hematology Oncology
  • Urology Oncology
  • COVID-19 –Respirology
  • Post-COVID Condition – Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  • Post COVID Condition – Internal Medicine
  • Post COVID Condition – Neurology
  • Post-COVID Condition – Physical Medicine/Rehab
  • Post-COVID Condition – Respiratory Recovery
  • LGBTQIA+ Sexual Health
  • Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)

Use either the BASE™ Managed Specialty Group dropdown menu or type the name of the group into the 'Specific Provider or Group' search box to locate these groups and send your eConsult.
Accredited eConsult Webinar Series

Courtesy of our partners at the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization (SEAMO), a series of 8 half-hour eConsult webinars are available to primary care providers in Ontario.

Attend one or all 8 webinars to receive up to 4 credits from the College of Family Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

For more information or assistance, please email SEAMO directly at seamo.digitalhealth@queensu.ca.
Session 1: Pediatrics and eConsults with Dr. Richard van Wylick

Session 2: Endocrinology and eConsults with Dr. Robyn Houlden

Session 3: Cardiology and eConsults with Dr. Cathy McLellan

Session 4: Gastroenterology and eConsults with Dr. Lawrence Hookey

Session 5: Hematology and eConsults with Dr. David Lee

Session 6: Urology and eConsults with Dr. Michael Leveridge

Session 7: Neurology and eConsults with Dr. Albert Jin
Friday, May 27, 2022 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.

Session 8: Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and eConsults with Dr. Sarosh Khalid-Khan
Friday, June 10, 2022 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Data as of April 2022. This data has been reproduced with permission from the Ontario eConsult Centre of Excellence. For more information, please contact eConsult@HITSeHealth.ca.
Contact Us
For more information on anything in this email, or to schedule a follow-up appointment with our team, please contact us at the email listed below.