eReferral and eConsult
Streamlining the Referral and Consultation Process
eReferrals and eConsults streamline communication between healthcare providers, ensuring patients receive timely and coordinated care. eReferrals allow patient referrals to be created, securely transmitted, tracked, and managed electronically, while eConsults enable one health professional to seek the expertise of another regarding a patient’s care.
Benefits of eReferral/eConsult
eReferrals and eConsults are transforming healthcare by streamlining processes, improving communication, and enhancing patient care. By accelerating coordination, it supports patients, providers, and the healthcare system as a whole. Benefits include:
For Clinicans
- eReferrals: Ensure referral requests are complete by verifying that all relevant and required information is included, reducing delays.
- eReferrals: Facilitate tracking of referrals and patient progress, ensuring timely follow-ups
- eConsults: Allowing clinicians to receive timely advice from specialists, often resolving questions without requiring a patient visit to a specialist
- eConsults: Empowering clinicians to expand their care capacity and treat patients directly when appropriate
- Both: Reduce paperwork and administrative burdens, eliminating the need for handwritten forms and faxes
- Both: Enable efficient provider-to-provider communication and information sharing
For Patients
- eReferral: Reduce wait times for patients seeking specialist appointments by improving referral efficiency
- eReferral: Enhance patient experience by improving transparency (e.g., referral status) and timeliness in managing health concerns
- eConsult: Saving patients time and money by avoiding unnecessary travel to specialist appointments
- eConsult: Enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes through more timely and appropriate management of health concerns
- Both: Supporting better health outcomes through faster and more appropriate care management
For Jurisdictions
- eReferrals: Strengthen interoperability and alignment with international standards like FHIR, ensuring seamless digital integration
- eConsult: Reducing geographic barriers, enabling providers in remote or underserved areas to consult with specialists
- Both: Improving population health outcomes by improving care management for patients awaiting specialist appointments
For Healthcare Funders
- eReferrals: Standardize the referral process across providers and health care settings, promoting consistency and quality of care
- eConsult: Help specialists prioritize urgent cases, enabling better management of appointments and improving provider satisfaction
- Both: Enhancing care coordination, minimizing redundant tests and administrative costs
For Vendors
- Both: Simplifies solution integrations with existing healthcare systems, ensuring smoother adoption and faster deployment
- Both: Ensures compatibility with pan-Canadian standards, easing compliance and implementation
What is the CA:eReC?
The pan-Canadian eReferral/eConsult Interoperability Specification (CA:eReC) defines the foundational building blocks – such as standards, formats, protocols, and data structures–required to create interoperable eReferrals and eConsult solutions. These specifications support processes to create, manage, and respond to electronic referral and consultation requests while enabling intra-jurisdictional interoperability without limiting future inter-jurisdictional interoperability.
The CA:eReC is designed to be flexible, allowing jurisdictions to adapt it to meet their unique requirements while maintaining alignment.
Why was the CA:eReC developed?
Infoway developed the CA:eReC to establish a pan-Canadian interoperability standard that ensures eReferrals and eConsults systems meet standardized interoperability requirements. It aligns with international standards such as FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource) to promote seamless data exchange while incorporating high-level privacy and security considerations.
Historically, eReferral and eConsult solutions were developed to meet local or regional needs, resulting in inconsistent interoperability standards. The CA:eReC addresses this gap by enabling health care providers to create, share, and access interoperable eReferral and/or eConsult requests.
The 2024 National Survey of Canadian Physicians: Use of Digital Health and Information Technologies in Practice provides further insights into eReferrals usage across the country.
Access the CA:eReC