Why Am I Still Faxing? Making Interoperability Real in Everyday NP Workflows

Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are expected to deliver timely, coordinated, and safe care yet the information they rely on is often incomplete, outdated, or inaccessible at the moment decisions are made. Despite major investments in digital health, critical clinical data is still scattered across faxes, scanned PDFs, patient portals, and non-communicating systems. This disconnect directly affects patient safety, slows care, and increases administrative burden. In everyday NP workflows, these gaps show up as missing medication updates, delayed consult notes, and duplicate manual entry, small moments that collectively shape the quality and efficiency of care.

This presentation offers a practical, NP-focused introduction to interoperability, challenging the assumption that “digital” automatically means “connected”. It explores why this distinction matters for patient safety, clinician workload, and continuity of care. Participants will examine the difference between merely viewing patient information and being able to meaningfully use it within clinical workflows. Particular attention will be given to how interoperability gaps disproportionately impact patients with complex, multi-site care, those in rural or remote settings, and those without stable primary care.

This presentation offers a practical, NP-focused introduction to interoperability and challenges the assumption that “digital” automatically means “connected.” It explores why this distinction matters for safety, workload, and continuity of care, and examines the difference between being able to simply view patient information and being able to use it meaningfully within clinical workflows. Using brief “day-in-the-life” scenarios, participants will learn how to distinguish “digitized paper” from true interoperability and will receive a practical interoperability checklist they can apply in their own settings. As digital tools become increasingly central to healthcare delivery, they must support not hinder the complexity of clinical decision-making and coordinated care.

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of where interoperability gaps persist, how to assess digital tools for meaningful connectivity, and the language needed to advocate for health systems that are truly integrated. Ultimately, NPs will build greater digital fluency, strengthening their ability to critically evaluate the tools they use and expand their role in shaping more connected, inclusive models of care.

Presentation Objectives:
1. Define interoperability and explain how patient information-sharing gaps persist across care settings in Ontario.

2. Identify the clinical and operational impact of disconnected systems, including as safety risks, administrative workloads and delays in care.

3. Describe strategies NPs can use to advocate for more connected digital workflows that support equitable integrated care.