What Can I Do?

Screening:
Use EMR-enabled tools to:
- Assess illness (templated forms)
- Triage for care or screening (questionnaires)
- Clinical notes to record virtual visits
- Direct patients quickly to
- Self care
- In-office visit
- Screening/testing facilities
- Acute care facility (ER) when required
Care for patients with suspected COVID-19:
- Use virtual tools to keep contact with patients who have symptoms and who you are monitoring
- Reassess patients virtually if worsening
Care for regular patients:
- Use virtual care tools to avoid unnecessary trips to the office
- Manage chronic disease
- Managing other acute illness that may not require a physical exam
There are many virtual tools that can be used to help you provide the best care during outbreaks of infectious diseases or at any other time.
Any direct-to-patient telephone, telemedicine and video calling platforms can now be used as the work is remunerated with the new fee codes, rather than the platform you choose. This allows rapid and wide scaling of care that works best in your area. When choosing, consider how easy the technology is for you to use, how easy it is for patients to use, how the technology can help you keep patient information private and secure, and that you must record the work in your medical record. Additional technical guidance may be provided by the Ministry to inform technology selection and this page will be updated to point to the information. Consider the right type of contact, for the right patient, at the right time, for the right problem. Video conferencing and phone calls are payable under the new fee codes, but email and texts to patients may also be useful for care, even if not discretely funded.
Unless you are using virtual care technologies where consent from the patient is handled at sign-up, you should ask patients for their consent.
Information vetted by OMA and OntarioMD legal teams and the CMPA has been created to make this easier. OMA Legal has prepared a short paragraph statement and information to provide to patients to initiate a virtual care patient encounter which has also been vetted by the CMPA. Click the blue bar immediately below to view the statement.