An electronic medical record (EMR) is a complex tool. It is a tool that allows you to do your every day tasks, but also contains many advanced features that allow you to save time and be more efficient. The data contained in an EMR is highly sensitive and therefore must be “handled” with care.
By familiarizing yourself with the concepts below, you will ensure that you have the best possible understanding of how our EMR works.
The use of Omnimed is based on three main concepts: the notion of institution, mandate and consent. These concepts govern your access to the data contained in the patient file. Each of these three concepts can determine whether or not you have access to certain information.
Understand the institution concept
If you work in more than one institution, it is important to work in the correct institution in Omnimed, depending on where you are physically working. The following actions are directly linked to your connexion institution:
If you do not find what you are searching for, make sure the institution in which you are connected is the good one and change it if needed.
Understand the mandate concept
Mandates are used to access patients' records. Only health professionals have the right to view, add or modify clinical data in their own name. The non-professional team members must select a mandate in order to do so and cannot work in their own names for these actions. In all cases, activation of a mandate in the header of the application allows a user (professional or non-professional) to fill the medical record of a patient in the name of that mandate. A mandate is related to an institution. If a professional works in more than one institution, he can give his mandate for only one institution or more than one in order to control the access to his patients' files.
Understand the consent concept
A health professional has access, at all times, to the information of which he is the author. Via a mandate, a professional can give another professional access to the information for which he is the author. The family doctor has access to all data belonging to patients registered in his name at the RAMQ. A professional can get access to all data from a patient's record on an ad hoc basis (by clicking on the appropriate button in the patient's record) as long as he obtained explicit consent from the patient. This consent is equivalent to a patient's record of emergency access.