Case study – Health Agency lessons in bringing electronic governance to boards

Health organizations with a focus on connecting patients, doctors and healthcare providers through digital records – are bringing the same thinking to their boards

Across Canada, healthcare agencies are being established to bring transparency, accountability and efficiency into how national and regional healthcare systems operate, often with a focus on establishing and maintaining electronic health records. Electronic records connect doctors, acute care providers, hospitals, and of course patients to current and complete health information.

As health agencies work to connect people through easy-to-use technology to better serve patients, they are also looking to technology to bring more transparency, accountability and efficiency to their boards. Aprio works with a number of health agencies including eHealth Ontario and Island Health to connect board members and bring more efficiency to how they communicate and run board meetings.

The challenge– Finding efficiency amid the email swirl, without spending a lot

“We’d have one hour for a critical discussion and 10 minutes would be spent getting all directors to the right documents to even begin. Board updates were lost in email trails and administrators would field phone calls asking for the latest version to be resent, only doubling the problem and the security risk.”
– Health agency executive

Healthcare board administrators often spend hours preparing and emailing out information to Directors prior to board meetings. Occasionally documents are stored on Dropbox to try and protect privacy, though without any protection on the receiver end for how documents might be downloaded and stored from there.

Health agency staff received repeat calls from Board members to resend missed information, and directors were getting annoyed at reviewing out of date documents with no version control in place. There was frustration, but no sense of how to do things differently and better – and seemingly no time or budget to consider alternatives.

Challenges health agencies are seeking to solve:

• Escape email confusion – Make current version of board information easy to access.
• Ensure security – Protect sensitive data on costs, salaries, leadership performance and patient care in board documents –provide secure access to select people.
• Save board communication time – focus board’s limited time on strategic decisions, not chasing information.
• Walk the “transparency, accountability, efficiency” talk – achieve connectivity and secure access to timely information for the Board, just like other health stakeholders.
• Keep Board tools simple – any technology chosen had to be easy to learn and use for board members including doctors, business professionals and patient stakeholders.
• Spend responsibly–affordability is a must for any software procured. Health agencies must justify use of every public dollar spent.

The solution – Aprio Board portal software

Health agencies are increasingly seeking a technology solution to provide secure, one-stop access to board information to achieve transparency, accountability (including privacy protection) and efficiency in how information is shared and accessed.

“We knew there had to be technology to work smarter as a health agency. We looked at eight board portals. We chose Aprio because it makes a director’s job easier than any other technology. Aprio’s desktop and tablet editions build on what’s familiar to directors – easy to find agendas, key documents, contacts and archives – everything they expect all well organized.”
– Health agency executive

The impact for health agencies

With Aprio, health agency boards and committees are running better:

• More productive meetings with agenda and linked documents at fingertips – many health organizations provide board members iPads
• Instant updates to board members on meeting dates and information updates
• A one-stop location for boards to access information
• Security of documents and any annotated notes shared in discussion
• Decision tracking – digital signatures to key motions, instantly archived
• Timesaving on meeting set up and director communication.

“Aprio organized the chaos. Now directors always have the latest versions of critical documents. There’s visibility into future meetings. We have better meetings, more prepared discussions with everyone with access to key documents at their fingertips. Plus security is assured every minute.”
– Health agency executive

Aprio – Easy-to-use, secure and affordable

Aprio is the most trusted choice of healthcare agencies – chosen for its affordability, simplicity, security and unmatched training & support. We value working with eHealth Ontario, Island Health and our many government and crown corporation customers.

Curious about the impact we could have for you? Let us show you.