Novari’s Medical Imaging Referral Management Software is now LIVE

Shared on behalf of the Diagnostic Leadership team

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences (TBRHSC) implemented centralized bookings for surgery across four sites in 2017. This was followed with launching centralized intake to receive referrals for our Musculoskeletal Program in 2018. Since then, central intake has expanded to include referrals for Endoscopy, Urology, some gynecological procedures, gallbladders and hernias.

On April 11th, our Diagnostic Imaging department went live with Central Intake with Novari’s Medical Imaging Referral Management software. In Fall 2022, our Cardiovascular Program will be live for cardiac catheterization, electro-physiology, the RAVE clinic and cardiac rehabilitation.

Central Intake has been shown to reduce Wait Times by 28% – it is the model of choice used not only in health care but also in businesses such as Walmart, West Jet and Air Canada to achieve more efficient throughput.

Central intake benefits our patients by providing:

  • Improved access to care with a reduced wait time for surgical consultation and surgery;
  • Timely triage of non-surgical candidates from surgical consult appointments to enable provision of counseling on conservative management techniques;
  • Provision of care that is coordinated, and integrated with primary care, to ensure patient’s receive the right care from the right providers; and
  • Optimized wait list management for both surgical consultation and surgery through existing technology.
  • Care closer to home.
  • A one-stop shop for patients and families. This eliminates the guesswork for who to contact regarding their referral status.
  • Decreasing the chances of lost referrals with the traditional fax machine.

Central intake benefits our providers by:

  • One point of contact for referrals through centralized intake;
  • Patient and Primary Care Provider-centred resources;
  • Reducing the needed for unnecessary diagnostic imaging and other tests;
  • Providing increased patient satisfaction and decreased anxiety;
  • Potential for decrease in the prescription of narcotics by providing rapid access to specialized care;
  • Streamlining referral patterns through one point of access using advanced technology including eReferral direct from their EMR
  • Offering a shared-care model with consistent patient messaging and enhanced communication between providers

Centralized Intake Success Stories

  1. On March 18th, the distressed wife of a patient phoned surgical central intake because her husband had been referred for a service a few days prior, however his symptoms had significantly worsened. Due to the pressing nature of the phone call and the implied urgency, the administrative clerk forwarded the file to the nurse practitioner to review. Upon investigation, some alarming symptoms were flagged as well as some missing diagnostics. This prompted the central intake Nurse Practitioner to contact both the patient and the GI specialist to conduct an impromptu consultation. As a result, the patient was immediately triaged as urgent, and was booked in for the required procedure on March 21st.
  • A shoulder referral patient from a Northern Community was identified through central intake as coming to Thunder Bay for MRI of her shoulder. The Central Intake team was able to arrange for same day X-ray and same day consult with the Advanced Practice Clinician (APC) at our Rapid Access Clinic in order to: minimize travel, provide hands on assessment, and review the patient’s exercises to aid in determining if surgical consult was required. Once the imaging was resulted, the central intake team provided timely telephone follow up to discuss next steps in the patient’s plan of care.
  • Another patient from the region was identified through triage and telephone consult as requiring timely assessment for their shoulder. We were able to arrange APC and surgeon consultation same day and patient consented for a high priority surgical repair.
  • The APC working at the TBRHSC Rapid Access Clinic was reviewing a hip x-ray from a new referral on a patient from Fort Frances. Severe arthritis was noted with the risk for an impending fracture. The APC knew that an orthopaedic surgeon was working at Riverside Healthcare in Fort Frances that day. A same day consult was arranged and surgery was expedited.
  • The spine APC was reviewing a referral for a regional patient and flagged some concerning symptoms. The APC organized an in person consultation and an MRI within days with the support of the Orthopaedic Surgeon. The patient was then referred to the spine surgeon on call who was a neurosurgeon. From referral to surgery took 5 days. The patient had a spine tumour removed and has made a full recovery. He is now coaching his kids sports team and is back to referring himself.

During the pandemic, our central intake team pivoted effortlessly to the provision of virtual consults. We have minimized or eliminated the need for travel while continuing to provide care for our patients during lockdowns. Our team receives compliments from patients and providers regarding our provision of timely access to care, how well information has been communicated, and that the entire team has provided high quality patient centred care.