Pathways – Streamlining referrals, improving patient care
What is Pathways NL?
History of Pathways and Pathways NL
Who can use Pathways NL?
How do I request access?
How is Pathways NL funded?
How do patients benefit from Pathways NL?
How is Pathways NL organized?
Pathways BC is responsible for managing the technical infrastructure of Pathways, while the Pathways NL project team will provide administrative support to assist FPNs in implementing and maintaining Pathways NL. The Pathways NL project team will gather local data from family physicians, consultants, and relevant clinical services in each NL health zone, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the Pathways resource.
Governance
Ultimate accountability for Pathways NL resides with the FPN Boards, however Pathways NL is currently in a demonstration project phase and the project is governed by a steering committee with two co-chairs (co-chairs are comprised of one family physician and one consultant).
Benefits of Using Pathways
To FPs:
- Helps identify the most appropriate consultant for a patient’s needs with the shortest wait time.
- Provides physicians with information about specific areas of practice, areas of special interest, or specific cases consultants will not accept (e.g., orthopaedics, paediatrics) to inform referrals.
- Provides a single access point to locate consultant/clinic contact details, patient instructions, and referral forms, reducing time consuming phone calls for office staff.
- Provides access to patient resources that can be shared while in the exam room and even emailed to patients, some of which can be used to prevent inappropriate referrals.
- Offers an opportunity for new family physicians to quickly build a patient panel or communicate changes like a new location.
To Consultants:
- Decreases the incidence of inappropriate referrals by clearly outlining areas of practice and cases that will not be accepted, allowing for more efficient use of time.
- Consultants have full use of Pathways and can use it to refer to another consultant, or Family Physicians in the community.
- Saves office staff significant time answering calls about schedule, contact information, referral forms, etc.
- Provides a host of resources searchable by specialty, including calculators, decision aids, and risk tables.
- Offers an opportunity for new consultants to quickly build a patient panel, or communicate changes, such as a new location.
To the Health System:
- Offers the potential to optimize wait times throughout the system, reducing the burden on consultants with extremely long wait lists, and help identify consultants with shorter wait times (e.g. recent grads or new to the community).
- Reduces inappropriate referrals and the need for re-referrals, driving down costs to the health care system.
- Improves recruitment and retention of physicians.
- Pathways offers the potential to scale existing functionality to integrate with EMRs, even to be used as a platform for e-referrals.
Evaluation Results