Patients Before Paperwork
We’re mobilizing digital health tools to improve patient care, enhance health system coordination, strengthen health privacy and reduce the administrative burden faced by health care providers.
To support the Government of Ontario’s ‘Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care', the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health are collaborating on a new initiative, ‘Patients Before Paperwork’ (Pb4P).
Pb4P is supporting innovative and creative digital solutions to make it easier for providers to deliver and connect people to care. Within a few years, digital health tools will modernize clinical pathways, such as those that are paper-or-fax-based and transform information sharing across the health system.
Whether you are a patient or a health care provider working in Ontario, Pb4P will make it easier and more convenient to access and deliver care by:
- promoting timely delivery of care through the reduction of paper and fax-based workflows
- improving access to care for people in Ontario and reducing delays in the delivery of patient care
- enhancing health care privacy measures and avoiding fax-caused privacy breaches with secure digital health tools
- improving inter-system and provider-to-provider communication to support continuity of care
- ensuring alignment between digital health tools, projects and digital health portals
- tackling sources of provider burnout by addressing administrative burden and streamlining technological demands
- contributing to health system planning so resources can be better allocated and the goals of the quintuple aim, which include enhancing patient experience, advancing health equity and improving population health, provider experience and value, can be met
Implementation of Pb4P
The Pb4P initiative is currently assessing a variety of different digital health tools and clinical workflows. This work is being informed by engagement with clinicians, health system partners and patients through a multi-phased and clinically led approach.
Engagement is a key component of this initiative and will help to guide change and identify new opportunities to improve health system coordination, as well as enhance the experiences of patients and health care providers.
Related
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eForms Our platform minimizes fax-based workflows, eliminates redundancies and offers a more secure and efficient way to manage patient data.
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Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS) A secure digital health tool that provides authorized health care providers with access to patients’ laboratory test orders and results.
Last Updated: June 18, 2025