Lakeridge Health Improves Access and Patient Experience in Durham Region Using Corolar Virtual Care

Image of cloud representing virtual health care powered by Corlar virtual care.

Digital first approach

Lakeridge Health is home to five hospitals and four emergency departments dedicated to caring for more than 650,000 people living and working in Durham Region. Speciality centres provide cancer treatments, mental health services, orthopedics, opthalmology and chronic kidney disease care.

The Challenge

Lakeridge Health had been exploring virtual options to expand access to care for Durham Region residents when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. Virtual urgent care suddenly became a critical requirement to help hospitals quickly adapt to public health restrictions while maintaining a high level of care. The Durham Virtual Urgent Care Clinic had to become operational in a matter of months while meeting all jurisdictional, privacy and security requirements in Ontario. Two primary care clinics and several community partners would need to be integrated into the launch.

Hospital staff looking at medical clipboards.

The Requirements

In designing their new virtual care model, the Lakeridge Health team set out to recreate the seamless transition from intake to consultation (nursing triage, physician) that patients experience in the hospital.

“We wanted to replicate the real-world, in-person care environment much more closely,” says Dr. Ilan Lenga, Chief Information Officer and Chief Medical Information Officer at Lakeridge Health.

That included enabling patients to meet with their primary care physician whenever possible—and even see multiple providers in a single session. Adds Dr. Lenga, “The idea was to deliver the highest quality healthcare possible that just happened to be virtual.”

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Female doctor during a consultation with a patient on a laptop.

The Solution

With the support of Ontario Health, Lakeridge Health selected Corolar Virtual Care (CVC) as its technology solution. CVC made it possible to operate the clinic securely and efficiently by running on Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Azure while integrating with the electronic health record (EHR) platform.

Customizable workflow options helped Lakeridge Health realize its design requirements. At the start of each virtual session, patients submit an intake form that is reviewed by a nurse in the emergency department. The nurse assesses the patient’s suitability for the virtual clinic and performs a modified triage.

As patients wait for their appointments, they may leave the virtual lobby and return without losing their place in the queue. On-demand notifications are sent to patients via SMS, email or automated voice message with the start time for the appointment, reducing time loss and allowing consulting providers to seamlessly collaborate in a single session.

Dr. Larry Nijmeh, emergency care physician and ED lead for the Durham Virtual Urgent Care Clinic, finds CVC easy and practical to use. “It allows you, with a quick visual, to see in the patient queue who is urgent, who is less urgent, and those patients waiting for primary care.”

Corolar Virtual Care allows you, with a quick visual, to see in the patient queue who is urgent, who is less urgent, and those patients waiting for primary care.

Integrated Care Model

Expansion is already underway following the successful pilot program. The goal is to operate across the care continuum as one “clinic” with additional primary care partners and mental health services. A dedicated nurse will be assigned to each clinic to assess whether a patient is most appropriate for a primary care or emergency physician based on the clinical need, optimizing resources and improving the patient experience by matching each person with the right level of care.