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HRM Recommendations

Health Report Manager Task Force Reports 

How are the recommendations to improve HRM progressing?

OntarioMD (OMD) is continuing the themes of the HRM Task Force through the HRM Improvement Recommendations Advisory Committee (HIRAC). HIRAC brings together organizations that share accountability for hospital reports and EMR usability to advance HRM Task Force recommendations and improve the user experience.  

Hospital Report Improvement Initiatives 

  • Hospital Pilot: In early 2024, OMD initiated a limited pilot to address the volume of HRM reports from Queensway Carleton Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Lakeridge Health. This pilot centred around the HRM Task Force sending facility recommendations, including:

    • Identifying important information (impression, plan) on the first page of reports

    • Reducing the delivery of reports with no significant clinical changes (duplicates and near-duplicates)

    • Minimizing the number of inpatient reports

  • Expanding Sending Facility Standards Adoption:The pilot phase ended in April 2025 and provided insights on what other hospitals need to implement the recommendations. OMD is working with Ontario Health and the HIS Collaborative on broader hospital engagement – beyond the limited scope of the pilot – that is underway with a target of expanding the adoption of Sending Facility Standards to 30 hospitals. OMD also supports hospitals that implement their own changes to address HRM report volumes.

  • Duplicate Faxes: Hospitals in the pilot phase have stopped sending reports by fax that are also delivered through HRM. Multiple hospitals in Ontario – outside of the pilot – have also stopped sending faxes for reports delivered via HRM.

  • HRM Optimization: 

    • The first phase of this pilot took place during the summer of 2025. It identified duplicates and near-duplicate reports and created an AI-generated summary of medical records and diagnostic imaging reports. 

    • The second phase of this pilot will take place in 2026 and will focus on: 

      • Appended PDF, with AI-Summary, will be searchable in a new field, in the participant doctor's EMR 

      • Exact duplicate reports to bypass the EMR inbox and be posted in the patient chart 

EMR Usability Improvement Initiatives 

  • Augmented Report Handling: Complementary to the preference management features available in HRM, enhanced EMR functionality is anticipated to permit rules-based handling of reports within the EMR (e.g., prioritizing reports based on type or content).

  • Report Searchability and Advanced Formatting: Since 2024, OMD has been working with partners to:

    • Encourage EMR vendors to consider technology that interprets formatted text and “reads” PDFs 

    • Explore the use of technology solutions, including AI-generated summaries, to assist with report handling and interpretation as well as the issue of duplicate reports. The HRM Optimization Pilot will further reduce clinician administrative burden in future phases.