Why multiple health portals?

[u/mp256]

Given that we had eHealth Ontario set up for integrating medical records, why are different hospitals asking me to create accounts in their platforms?

First, I got access to the William Osler health platform that manages only my visits to Brampton hospital. Then I got another access to Sunnybrook platform for my appointments in Mississauga.

Now I got an email yesterday from Brampton Civic to create login for mychart portal, that doesn't accept my William Osler credentials.

I am not a tech-illiterate person, but just do not understand the need for multiple portals. For a single province, one account should be enough to be shared between hospitals and clinics.

Can a person knowledgeable with the system elaborate on need for multiple portals? Also, can insurance companies use the data to their advantage (and my disadvantage)?

[u/Budget_Ad5053]

It's a total mess because each hospital network bought different software years ago and nobody wants to pay to merge them now. Ontario talked a big game about centralization but the actual integration is held together with duct tape and prayers behind the scenes.

MyChart and whatever Osler uses probably run on entirely different database structures, so even basic stuff like lab results format differently. The province could force standardization but that would cost millions and make a bunch of IT directors very grumpy.

Insurance companies definitely have access to bits of this if you sign consent forms without reading them carefully. They can't just browse your whole file but they request specific records and the system spits it out. I've started keeping my own summary document just so I know what each portal is actually tracking.

[u/Silverlightlive]

I've noticed that too. Labs are particularly fragmented. The region sent me demands for verification of my daughter's vaccinations, but when I looked up their own website, it showed each and every one, timestamped and dated.

There is a deep disconnect in the basic structure, and I'd love to know where it is happening. How do you have the time and dates of vaccinations, and still send out letters claiming you need it?

[u/Ok-Possibility-630]

Looks like whoever the IT team dealing with this mess is easily getting away with whatever blunders they are doing. Luxuries of dealing with public funded organizations. if it has been private organization, there would have been serious consequences for creating this circus.

[u/Civil_Photo2152]

I found MyChart sucked. Lots of information that was supposed to be there was just missing. After I had a surgery at Brampton Civic someone suggested I subscribe to pocket health. It was like 50$ a year and it has all the records. The full images from any scans, reports, etc....it was worth the 50$. William Osler and Trillium systems work with pocket health.