Key takeaways
- Canada ranks 9th out of 10 peer countries for healthcare access and performs far below average in timely access to care.
- Healthcare IT systems must “talk” to each other to remove digital silos. When information flows securely, patient health improves as healthcare professionals save time.
- Care orchestrators bridge data systems to provide real-time visibility into organizational operations. This allows resources to be in the right place at the right time.
Canada’s healthcare system needs a major overhaul to meet the increasing complexity needs of an aging, and, most importantly, growing population.
The healthcare sector from top to bottom continues to wade its way through a digital transformation in search of efficiencies. This need to digitize was driven by several factors including the global pandemic’s accelerated shift in care delivery and consumer preferences.
Canada’s healthcare underperforms peers
Today, Canada ranks 9th out of 10 peer countries for healthcare delivery, and performs far below average in access to care, administrative efficiency, and care timeliness. In 2023, only 26% of Canadians could get a same- or next-day appointment, decreasing from 46% in 2016; the peer average in 2023 was 46%.
Did you know that 8 in 10 Canadians want to view their health information electronically, but only 3 in 10 say they can?
According to professor Mirou Jaana of the University of Ottawa, Canada’s healthcare system lacks “seamless electronic information exchange” between health care organizations, care providers, and patients. For proof: in 2021, nearly 90% of Ontario doctors used faxes to share patient information with other health care providers.
The key issue is that healthcare IT systems don’t “talk” to each other. Rather than allowing information to flow—and do so securely—Canada’s health data lives in digital silos. A high volume, velocity, and variety of patient data generate a glut of disparate information stored in disconnected locations and systems.
Disconnected systems cost patients, providers, and decision-makers
This causes profound challenges to data sharing for healthcare professionals, insurers, researchers, decision-makers, and patients—all further fragmented between provinces and regions. In turn, technological progress slows in data standardization, technical interoperability, and data quality.
What’s going wrong?
- High volume, velocity, and variety of information overwhelm outdated IT systems.
- Provinces and regions often operate in isolation, fragmenting care further.
- Patient data sits in disconnected digital silos.
As Dr. Woods, former president and CEO of London Health Sciences, said in 2021, “Canada has no discernable health technology strategy. We have a lot of small ‘s’ strategies and jurisdictional squabbles…That’s not a health IT strategy.”
Inevitably, patients pay the high price of self-contained IT systems. Locked and isolated human-fit data between patient demand and provider capacity results lead to low quality healthcare. Moreover, limited global data sharing reinforces Canada’s inferior healthcare system performance.
The Quebec government redirects 800+ patients daily through data-driven orchestration:
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Connected care: Canada's key to achieving healthcare promise
Interconnected and interoperable digital health solutions are critical to revolutionizing Canada’s healthcare system.
Investments in digital platforms that seamlessly operate and support all stakeholders throughout patients’ healthcare journeys is paramount to maximizing limited resources.
The good news: cutting-edge technologies made to combine patient data and improve operational efficiency are available.
Advanced solutions integrate data-driven healthcare solutions to create an interconnected ecosystem, eliminating digital silos. They should enable real-time monitoring and offer insights to make better decisions—not only for patient demand but also for provider capacity.
In a country where 27% of patients say their health worsened while waiting for delayed care, and 85% of healthcare professionals report losing time due to incomplete or inaccessible patient data, connected care is a necessity for improving quality of life for all. This is because connecting healthcare systems allows rapid, informed decisions that promote better outcomes for patients and improved work-life balance for professionals.
- Remember: Interoperability with other systems must adhere to provincial and local regulatory standards, as well as ever-evolving security requirements.
Why choose Petal’s industry-leading orchestrator
The Petal Orchestrator is a cloud-based platform that integrates data from diverse sources, such as booking systems, healthcare networks, and EMRs, to aggregate, refine, and analyze patient information in real-time.
Here are four advantages of Petal’s cloud-based Orchestrator:
- Integrates data from multiple EMRs, booking systems, and healthcare networks
- Aggregates, refines, and analyzes patient information in real time
- Supports more than 3,000+ care facilities across Canada
- Customizes based on each organization’s objectives
- Pro tip: Use the orchestrator’s data visualization capabilities to improve cross-team visibility and elevate organizational performance.
Make more informed decisions as your organization prepares for the future of healthcare. The next frontier of healthcare connection is here.
Experience the transformative impact of connected care today.
