The Digital Referrals and Orders (DRO) program is a provincial platform that allows care teams to electronically exchange, track, and manage referrals, medical order requisitions, and consultations more effectively and efficiently. Additionally, it tracks patient referrals from start to finish, helping to enhance patient safety in BC by reducing delays, misdirected referrals, and data entry errors.
Dr Stephen van Gaal, a neurologist and participant in the DRO program, says, “I’d wager every physician has experienced a situation where they opened a chart to find that a time-sensitive test or consult hadn’t been completed because a fax was either incorrectly sent or lost by the receiving office.” Because the DRO program relies on a single, shared, secure electronic system, it eliminates the risk of losing a request while also reducing patient harm that stems from those lost requests.
Additionally, patients and their referring providers receive real-time status updates throughout the referral process, helping to ensure they are not lost or forgotten and enhancing communication between health care providers. “The DRO system facilitates patient engagement in their care by enabling them to view the status of their referral from the moment it is initiated, providing reassurance and reducing office phone calls,” said Dr van Gaal.
To learn more about the DRO program, visit Doctors of BC’s Digital Health webpage. If you are interested in participating in engagement opportunities related to DRO, please contact DRO.program@phsa.ca.
Doctors of BC is committed to ensuring the physician voice is elevated and reflected throughout the implementation of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)-led DRO program, which is supported with funding from the Shared Care Committee (SCC).
Read the full Q&A with Dr van Gaal.
