EMRs Supported

The EMRs that Cortico currently supports and some of the differences between these EMR integrations are listed here.

This article discusses how the EMR integration takes place and what it entails.

Patient Identification

In order to book with Cortico, patients need to enter their Health Card Number (or email address if they are a private patient) and Date of Birth. If both of these match with a patient record in your EMR, they can proceed. We have a specific workflow type called Family Doctor, which only allows patients to book with their registered Family Doctor/MRP and their locums. The patient's email address and phone numbers are automatically populated from their patient record, and the patient can update them if they need to.

Cortico also allows new patients to register (can be disabled if the clinic does not take new patients). A new patient record will be created for them in your EMR, and they can book an appointment afterwards. We will not assign a Family Doctor/MRP to new patients, so that must be done manually by your clinic staff.

Ontario clinics: For usability reasons, the version code is optional in the booking flow for existing patients who already have the Version Code in their master file (if patients put both the health card number and Version code, the system will split them into 2 parts and match up the health card number in Oscar), instead of a hard-coded Version Code validation. This should help patients who are using the old health card and not using the Version Code to book their appointment as well.

When a new patient signs up, they will be asked to specify both the OHIP number AND the Version Code. 

Booking Appointments

Patients can select a doctor (if applicable) and enter their Reason for Visit/Symptoms and Preferred Pharmacy. The patient can then view the available timeslots of that doctor according to their Oscar schedule. 

Cortico pulls doctors' availability straight from your EMR and always provides up-to-date timeslots for patient bookings. You can customize which timeslots you want Cortico to book into by creating template schedules. Cortico will only book where specified template codes are present.

Appointment Status

Appointment statuses are used to mark appointments for different purposes. Cortico allows you to automatically choose an appointment status for each appointment type (in-person, video, phone), private patients, cancelled appointments, confirmed appointments, patients that have arrived, and reminders emailed. Each status can be customized with its own colour to organize your schedule so you can quickly recognize the status of each appointment.

Patient Status

Cortico is able to prevent patients with certain statuses from booking. You can choose to block them entirely from booking or give them a message to contact the clinic. By default, patients with status FI, MO, and DE are blocked from booking.