OntarioMD (OMD) is pleased to announce that effective May 18, 2021, patients' COVID-19 vaccination reports are being delivered directly from the provincial COVaxON vaccine management system to the electronic medical records (EMRs) of more than 12,000 family physicians and nurse practitioners (NPs). OMD worked closely with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to complete this important digital integration between COVaxON and OMD's Health Report Manager (HRM) to ensure patients' COVID-19 vaccination information is available to primary care clinicians regardless of where the vaccine was administered.
"HRM has once again demonstrated its value to the health care system by moving patient information across the system to enhance integrated, patient-centred care," said Sarah Hutchison, CEO of OMD. "This initiative delivers patients' COVID-19 vaccinations to their EMRs making it easier for clinicians to contact patients who still need to get vaccinated to improve Ontario's pandemic response."
Clinicians receive the reports within minutes of the COVID-19 vaccines being administered at any location, e.g., hospitals, pharmacies and mass vaccination clinics. If patients have consented to provide their information, the report will include important information to their primary care provider such as date, where the vaccine was administered, vaccine name, lot number* and any reaction. As more patients include the name their primary care provider, the number of COVID-19 vaccination reports sent is anticipated to increase dramatically. To date, more than 5,500 primary care providers have received 40,000+ vaccination reports.
Managing COVID-19 Vaccination Reports
OMD, Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health are looking at alternative options to deliver more COVID-19 vaccination reports via HRM such as integrating with CAPE (Client Agency Program Enrolment) (based on Ministry enrollment data) to better link vaccination data on patients to their primary care provider. OMD is working with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health on subsequent releases and we will update primary care providers with information on each release. These additional reports should be available soon. OMD is aware of issues for non-PEM physicians and other primary care clinicians in obtaining the vaccination reports for their patients and is collaborating with our partners to enable reports to flow to them as well. The Ministry and Ontario Health are also assessing delivery of retrospective data. As changes are made and processes are clarified, OMD will be update clinicians with new information on this website.
OMD is also working with EMR vendors to find a solution to help clinicians manage the increase in HRM reports arriving in their inboxes by identifying the ones that are COVID-19 vaccination reports from COVaxON.
COVaxON Training for Primary Care
OMD is also supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts by providing virtual clinical workflow and comprehensive end-to-end training on how to use the COVaxON system for primary care practices offering vaccination clinics. The training sessions are offered every week via Microsoft Teams. More than 1,800 clinic staff have taken the training already. OMD has also assembled many valuable resources and tools to help clinic staff identify patients who are eligible for vaccinations. Primary care clinic staff can request help from OMD for the COVaxON tool as well as how to incorporate the COVaxON immunization reports from HRM into EMRs by contacting COVaxON.Support@ontariomd.com.
For more information on the COVID-19 immunization reports from HRM, please visit OMD's Frequently Asked Questions.
*Please note that the lot number for the Pfizer vaccine is currently not included in the COVaxON reports through HRM. OMD is working with Ministry of Health to include the information in reports starting in early June.