St. Mary's, Ontario
Happy Valley Family Health Team is a multidisciplinary primary care clinic serving more than 20,000 patients in St. Marys and the surrounding rural area. Their team includes physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, social workers, addictions counsellors, and administrative staff working together to provide comprehensive, compassionate care. With a focus on quality, professionalism, and team-based support, Happy Valley FHT helps patients access the primary care services and resources they need close to home.
Dr. Robert Davis wanted to make better use of appointment time and improve diagnostic accuracy. Patients often remember important concerns after the visit has already started, or after it has ended. At the same time, physicians need structured information, red flags, and patient history without spending the visit typing into the chart.
The clinic needed a way to collect patient concerns before the exam room conversation, without making the process feel burdensome for patients or staff.
With a tablet in the waiting room, or a web questionnaire at home, Ocean offered Dr. Davis a new way to uncover patient concerns using diagnostic or agenda-setting questionnaires. He saw the Ocean platform as a potentially transformative solution for his practice – one that could simultaneously improve patient care and make patient visits more efficient.
The workflow started with annual checkups and chronic disease management, then expanded into acute visits as the team saw how well patients responded.
“Both the tablet and web questionnaires offer a unique way for me to gain a full understanding of my patients’ concerns, in their own words, before I even walk into the exam room,” said Davis.
“I knew it could make patient visits more efficient, but I also saw the potential for better diagnoses and patient care by supplementing patient visits with guideline-based diagnostic forms.”
Ahead of the visit, patient receives a secure message with a form to be completed. Alternatively in clinic, reception can give patient an Ocean Tablet to answer questions, complete forms, and review information at their own pace.
Responses are automatically imported into the patient’s chart in the EMR, complete with scoring, rich text formatting, and red flags
Dr. Davis can review any symptoms or concerns before entering the room. As a result, he spent less time typing, and more time can be spent discussing care.
Initially, clinic staff used the Ocean tablet largely for annual checkups and chronic disease management. However, as they saw how well it was working, they started to introduce it for acute visits as well.
“My patients have been overwhelmingly positive about the process and the technology,” said Davis. “They particularly like the idea of having a diagnostic questionnaire sent to them by email before coming in to the clinic. Inevitably patients forget something they want to bring up when they are here. This gives them the opportunity to ensure they communicate all their concerns.”
The patient responses are automatically imported into his EMR, allowing Dr. Davis to review self-reported symptoms and red flags before seeing the patient. This also eliminates the need for him to spend time typing notes in the patient chart during the appointment. He estimates that using diagnostic forms in Ocean saves time in approximately 90 percent of patient cases.
“I truly believe that Ocean, particularly the option to email questionnaires before an appointment, is one of the few advances in technology that actually improves patient interaction,” said Dr. Davis. “In my opinion it makes the visit more efficient from both a quality of care standpoint and a time standpoint. I am confident that in the future, it will become a “standard of care” practice.”
With the overwhelming early success of the Ocean tablet, the Happy Valley Health Team is already adding more tablets to allow more physicians – and patients – to benefit from the improved clinical experience it provides.
Positive feedback from patients is overwhelmingly positive; they appreciate the opportunity to take their time to be more accurate in communicating concerns.
Enhanced understanding of patient symptoms, higher-quality documentation, and improved adherence to clinical guidelines.
Using patient forms in Ocean saves time in approximately 90 percent of patient cases, with the greatest efficiencies achieved in chronic disease management.
I am confident that in the future, Ocean will become a “standard of care” practice.
“Ocean has streamlined our workflow and made care more efficient, accessible, and patient-centered for both staff and patients.”
“By allowing patients to fill out forms and receive messages electronically, Ocean is a straightforward, secure tool that expedites patient intake and communication, saving time for both staff and clinicians.”
“Forms were done in person by hand, now a lot of them are completed prior to coming into the office which is a huge time saver.”