NLMA Receives Funding to Help Reduce Administrative Burden
Each year, physicians in Canada spend 18.5 million hours on unnecessary administrative tasks. We need to do better. In October 2023, the Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank announced a partnership to offer up to $10 million in grant funding to create innovative solutions to enhance patient care by reducing administrative work and improving processes and practices. Non-profit organizations were invited to compete for funding made available through the Health Care Unburdened Grant.
We are thrilled to announce that the NLMA is one of 11 organizations to receive funding. Our successful bid will enable integration of authorization request forms from the Newfoundland and Labrador Prescription Drug Program (NLPDP) with the provincial electronic medical record.
Physicians are required to fill out special authorization request forms for patients to access certain therapies covered under the Newfoundland and Labrador Prescription Drug Program. These have traditionally been filled out on paper, which is a time-consuming and inefficient process. The NLPDP is now working with its service provider to create an online portal where physicians can log in to complete and submit these forms electronically.
With funding received from the Health Care Unburdened Grant, the NLMA will work with eDOCSNL, NLPDP and the Department of Health and Community Services to integrate the new NLPDP online portal with the provincial EMR to pre-populate forms automatically, to the extent possible. This integration will also help minimize the need for login credentials and pass notifications from the online portal directly to the EMR. Ultimately, forms will be submitted digitally and, through intelligent pre-population of clinical information, save time and improve efficiency.
“As a family physician, I see first-hand the impact administrative burden can have on a medical practice. This integration will help improve physician efficiency in filling out the forms required for patient coverage under the provincial drug plan. By lessening unnecessary paperwork and administrative tasks, physicians can work toward avoiding burnout and can get back to the purpose of medical practice – caring for patients.” – Dr. David Metcalfe, family physician and NLMA Board Member
The NLMA wishes to thank the CMA, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank for this funding to help alleviate administrative burden for physicians. Stay tuned for more details as this project gets underway.
