Participants

Participants in eReferral eConsult Information Exchange

During the service lifecycle, information is contributed to the Service Record by different parties participating in the process. By different People, Organizations and Systems.

People / Organizations

Party	Description
Requester HCP	A Health Care Provider (HCP) or their delegate (e.g. medical office assistant), or other service provider that initiates and sends the service request. For eReferrals/eConsults, this is typically the primary care provider.
Central Access & Triage (CAT)	An individual, organization, or automated process responsible for associating a request with a Performer HCP. Depending on the model employed, this could be a distinct role with additional responsibilities or performed by either the Requester HCP or Performer HCP.
Performer HCP	A Health Care Provider (HCP) or delegate, (e.g. medical office assistant), or other service provider that receives the service request and performs the requested services.

Systems

The following systems commonly support end user workflows that support the service lifecycle and contribute to a patient's Service Record in one or more System Roles.

System	Description
Referral Management System (RMS)	A specialized system that provides users with the functionality to collect, maintain, manage and disseminate information between participants in eReferral or eConsult workflows throughout the service lifecycle. A key function of an RMS is to generate and store a Service Record to support record keeping and communication throughout the service lifecycle.
Point of Service System (POS)	A system used in clinical settings to view and/or manage patient health information and health records. POS systems are an important source of supporting clinical information for an eReferral or eConsult. POS Systems participating in eReferral and eConsult include but are not limited to hospital information systems (HIS), electronic medical/health record (EMR/EHR) systems and provincial/regional EHR viewers. POS systems participating in eReferral / eConsult may provide the ability to initiate a request, receive updates as the request progresses and/or to receive a copy of the Service Record to support clinician workflow or recordkeeping requirements without providing other referral management functionality of a specialized RMS.

System

Description

Referral Management System (RMS)

A specialized system that provides users with the functionality to collect, maintain, manage and disseminate information between participants in eReferral or eConsult workflows throughout the service lifecycle. A key function of an RMS is to generate and store a Service Record to support record keeping and communication throughout the service lifecycle.

Point of Service System (POS)

A system used in clinical settings to view and/or manage patient health information and health records. POS systems are an important source of supporting clinical information for an eReferral or eConsult. POS Systems participating in eReferral and eConsult include but are not limited to hospital information systems (HIS), electronic medical/health record (EMR/EHR) systems and provincial/regional EHR viewers. POS systems participating in eReferral / eConsult may provide the ability to initiate a request, receive updates as the request progresses and/or to receive a copy of the Service Record to support clinician workflow or recordkeeping requirements without providing other referral management functionality of a specialized RMS.

Roles of Systems

System	Description
Source System	A POS that is used by a Requester HCP to initiate a service request and to receive and access information about the request's status with related information and appointments.
Target System	A POS that is used by a Performer HCP to receive and process service requests.
Central System	A system (typically an RMS) that is used by a Case Assigner to receive, triage and assign service requests to Performer HCPs to be completed. Some business and deployment models (e.g.: Central Access and Triage) treat the Central System as the definitive source of the Service Record throughout the service lifecycle to support the use of Source System and/or Target System with limited RMS functionality.
Connected System	A system that receives event based notifications containing Service Record information from an RMS without contributing content to or progressing the state of the record.