From virtual and palliative care to administrative burnout and wait times, OMR helps members stay informed
It was another critical year for health care in Ontario with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to loom over us and the health-care system. Here are five Ontario Medical Review stories that captured members’ attention over the past year.
Virtual care in Ontario is a sensitive topic with physicians and others in health care disagreeing about how the system should look moving forward. In this most-read OMR article, doctors discuss the importance of finding balance and weighing what’s convenient against the most suitable to ensure optimal health care.
This OMR read explores the challenges faced by Ontario’s palliative care system, sharing experiences and concerns from physicians who treat end-of-life patients. Pointing to the recommendations outlined in the OMA’s Prescription for Ontario, doctors stress the need for all Ontarians to have access to equitable palliative care.
Backlogged surgeries and procedures delayed due to the pandemic have dominated headlines, but surgical wait times are a decades-long issue within Ontario’s health-care system. This OMR article discusses using the OMA’s Integrated Ambulatory Centres: A Three-Stage Approach to Addressing Ontario’s Surgical and Procedural Wait Times model as a catalyst for change, and doctors stress the need for integration and collaboration of health-care entities.
A Toronto medical centre, HQ Toronto, has revolutionized health care in the city, providing first-of-its-kind health-care services to the LGBTQ community, including physical and sexual health care, mental health care and community and social programming services under one roof. In this OMR article, the founders stressed the importance of offering this kind of care to the community, void of stigma, judgment or expectations.
The administrative burden felt by physicians is pervasive with reports suggesting that every hour spent with a patient leads to an hour or more spent on paperwork. This OMR article looks at how human medical scribes are helping doctors ditch the computer and focus on their patient care, and AI’s role in managing administrative burden.
Visit the OMR landing page for more compelling reads that affect you, your patients and your practice.