What Your Ontario EMR Choice Says About You – Insights for Ontario Physicians
In Ontario's competitive healthcare landscape, the choice of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems goes beyond functionality—it reflects your values, priorities, and approach to patient care and business management. Let's explore the top five EMR systems in Ontario, their unique strengths, and what your choice says about your practice.
1. OSCAR EMR
Strengths: Open-source, cost-effective, and customizable.
What it Says About You: You value flexibility and community-driven solutions. You're likely tech-savvy and prefer tools that can grow with your practice. If you’re using the OSCAR PRO version, which is a WELL Health product, you may value those things but you’re also paying a premium for more structure, which may be challenging if you want to have a dynamic multidisciplinary practice down the road.
2. Telus Health EMR (PS Suite and Med Access)
Strengths: Integration with other healthcare services and scalability.
What it Says About You: You prioritize seamless workflows and are inclined toward data-driven decision-making. Your focus is on delivering connected care and you likely aren’t using this yourself if you do administrative tasks. You are very patient, as customer service is notoriously over-burdened and slow to help with support and integration of new accounts.
3. Accuro EMR
Strengths: User-friendly interface, advanced billing features we love, adaptable templates, and development teams that actively help with API access.
What it Says About You: Efficiency is your middle name. You seek dynamic systems that make charting, billing, and patient management faster and easier, and you can tell the people you are working with will benefit from more robust customization and integration with other systems. [NOTE: We built our Claims and Clarity Dashboard templates working through an Accuro EMR system.]
4. OSLER EMR
Strengths: Ideal for smaller practices with straightforward needs and budget constraints.
What it Says About You: Practical and resource-conscious, you value simplicity and a no-frills approach. You’re the kind of person who would likely say you don’t need to waste the money on trying a billing resource, and our advice to you is to take the free assessment from whomever you trust to do it… you’ll learn and it won’t cost you anything.
5. ABELMed
Strengths: Strong focus on patient engagement and clinic management tools.
What it Says About You: You are patient-focused, striving to enhance communication and care continuity. You did a lot of homework to arrive at this decision and likely didn’t consider the business case before you made this choice.
Choosing the Right EMR
Your EMR choice is a clear reflection of your priorities, and it sends a strong message about your practice's goals to potential partners or colleagues who consider joining you. Whether it's innovation, efficiency, scalability, or patient-centered care, aligning your selection with your mission ensures smoother operations and better outcomes. Our opinion: This is a business tool, and not a personal expression. Pick the system that will help you with your efficiency and the value of your practice. If everyone else in your specialty is using Accuro (for example) then it will likely be much easier to recruit, much faster to orient new team members, and much easier for an eventual buyer to take over your practice when and if you decide to sell…
When evaluating options, focus on:
Integration with OHIP billing systems or with our Claims Concierge system.
User-friendliness and team adoption of the new software.
Scalability for future growth.
Questions & Answers
What is the best EMR system for Ontario physicians?
There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. ACCURO is our favorite for specialists, OSCAR is great for tech-savvy users, while Telus Health EMRs excel in scalability and integrations. Evaluate based on your needs, and some tips on how to evaluate are just above.
How does EMR choice affect patient care?
The right EMR improves patient care through better data management, faster workflows, better dashboarding and effective communication of patient information and enhanced communication. The right EMR is also the one that is easiest to train your team to use, is the one that potential buyers will find easiest or fastest to integrate, and that can link with other systems.
Which EMR is best for OHIP billing?
Accuro EMR and Telus Health solutions stand out for their robust billing features. All of them can integrate with the Physicians First Concierge systems (Claims Concierge for OHIP billing and Clarity Dashboard for practice oversight, claims management, premium monitoring, etc.) and when you think about OHIP billing, its about more than just clicking the codes you think work, it’s also about ensuring you didn’t miss anything, monitoring your errors, and making sure your team know you can see their performance. The “best” value for doctors and clinic owners is the one that is in line with market expectation and best practice, and that integrates with a system like the Clarity Dashboard and Claims Concierge so that every dollar is visible and accounted for.
