Health Care Unburdened Grant Program
Each year, physicians in Canada spend 18.5 million hours on unnecessary administrative tasks. We need to do better. In the fall of 2023, the NLMA applied for funding to create innovative solutions to enhance patient care by reducing administrative work and improving processes and practices. We are pleased to receive funding from the Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank as part of the Health Care Unburdened Grant program to reduce physicians’ administrative workload and better support them in caring for their patients.
The NLMA is one of 12 organizations to receive this funding. Our successful bid will enable integration of the Newfoundland and Labrador Prescription Drug Program’s Special authorization forms with Med Access, the provincial EMR. 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 (NLPDP). 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 program, 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.
“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
Stay tuned for more details as this project gets underway.
