Ontario Hospitals Launch Health Information Exchange with Oracle

To help improve patient care through better information access, a group of 21 Ontario-based hospitals and facilities are now benefitting from Ontario eHub Health Information Exchange (HIE) powered by Oracle Health. The Ontario eHub can help these healthcare organizations share patient data more easily and securely, reducing administrative overhead, and facilitating improved care coordination for patients. Oracle Health is teaming with TransForm Shared Service Organization to manage the project.

The initial roll-out integrates 16 long-term care facilities with five hospitals to support patients moving from acute to long-term care. The Ontario eHub will help caregivers at these facilities ease this transition by providing a clear view into each patient’s health history, care plans, medications, and more from any connected device or existing EHR system, anywhere in the facility.

“The Ontario eHub HIE reflects Oracle’s longtime leadership in data interoperability,” said Brian Sandager, vice president and general manager, Canada, Oracle Health. “Initiatives like eHub in Ontario highlight our commitment to building a more connected and open healthcare ecosystem that will help deliver better outcomes for both patients and the medical professionals that work tirelessly to serve them.”

Connecting data for better care

Oracle Health’s HIE powers the Ontario eHub with sophisticated patient matching and data aggregation capabilities that enable clinicians to organize, review, and search for information more quickly and easily. To facilitate collaboration across the province, users at every site can have a consistent experience when accessing data in the system, which can be done via the HIE portal or through a viewer embedded directly into the facility’s existing EHR.

“Ontario is rapidly advancing towards more integrated systems, with the province adopting policies and establishing standards. Within the framework, HIE partners are implementing the first steps of a provincial data exchange that delivers a multitude of benefits including improved and safer transitions of care for patients and residents and better coordination of healthcare services for health service providers,” said Lyn Baluyot, president and CEO, TransForm Shared Service Organization. “I am proud of the hard work and dedication of the Ontario eHub HIE team for bringing us another giant step forward in providing coordinated care of Ontarians.”

By the end of 2024, it is expected that all Ontario healthcare facilities utilizing Oracle Health’s EHR will be integrated into the eHub as well as their long-term care facility partners. Ultimately, the Ontario eHub is an important cog to facilitate the future exchange of critical clinical data between other healthcare facilities, providers, and other Ontario health assets.