On Mar. 27, 2019, a survey was sent to over 500 specialists providing eConsult advice in Ontario. It asked for input and opinions on everything from billing to primary care engagement to system performance.
The results are in, and 100% of respondents supported a target response time of seven days or less for answering eConsult requests and 87% said they appreciate receiving email notifications about pending cases.
A total of 77% believe the support they receive to participate in the eConsult program is adequate and 82% said they appreciate receiving customized performance dashboards from the Ontario eConsult Centre of Excellence.
A total of 69% of specialists surveyed said they prefer time-based billing to other forms of billing (i.e. case-based), while 57% recommended implementing a maximum billing time per consult.
Recommendations for improvement include:
- Increasing primary care engagement
- Improving the quality of primary care questions
- Developing a better mobile device experience
- Integrating eConsult with EMRs
- Simplifying the use of the out-of-office function
- Improving the speed of the eConsult interface
We greatly value your input and thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on the eConsult program. If you have any other comments or suggestions, please send them to eConsultCOE@toh.ca.