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Background
Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care serves the healthcare needs of 13 million people in Canada's largest province.

Challenge
The province needed a comprehensive EMPI, also known as a client registry, to support its Wait Time Strategy to reduce patient wait times for healthcare delivery.

Solution
Ontario deploys Initiate software as its EMPI/client registry for its Wait Time Strategy information system.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is responsible for administering the healthcare system and providing services to the citizens of Ontario through a number of programs, ranging from health insurance and drug benefits to public health and disease prevention.

A majority of Canadians have expressed that they were waiting too long for the delivery of healthcare services and diagnostic test results. The Ontario government recognized that long wait times were actually a symptom of a more serious problem – slow access to patient care.

Ontario’s Wait Time Strategy was the first step in an ongoing process to improve access to healthcare services, and therefore reduce wait times. A client registry would need to be implemented to provide accurate, consistently updated patient information to help physicians prioritize the urgency of patients’ conditions.

Because the registry will also support an electronic health record (EHR), it must maintain data integrity address patients’ privacy concerns. Moreover, the registry will need to deliver accurate, up-to-date patient information to help physicians monitor outcomes.

Just a few months after implementing Initiate software as part of its Wait Time Strategy, Ontario's citizens are already seeing improvements in access to healthcare services and shorter wait times for diagnostic test results. In a May 18, 2006 press release, George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, noted an "encouraging" trend with "double-digit drops in wait times for a number of key health services.

Read the Ontario Success Story for more details about Ontario's road to improved patient care and satisfaction.