Modernizing Healthcare Regulation and Serving the Canadian Public
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) partnered with Deloitte to modernize its operations and enhance services through digital transformation. This initiative proved particularly crucial during the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the importance of adaptability and efficiency in healthcare regulation.
For over 150 years, the CPSO has been a crucial part of Ontario’s healthcare system. This self-regulating body oversees medical practice, ensuring the public’s trust in the care they receive.
Prior to the transformation, the CPSO relied heavily on manual, paper-based processes. The growing volume of data and disconnected systems made management difficult. Members faced limited data visibility and control, relying on mail, email, fax, and phone calls. Staff operated within a nine-to-five business model, responding to requests only during core business hours. Technical barriers hindered workflow and information flow, preventing the regulator from having a holistic view of its members, creating security risks and a fragmented user experience.
Transforming Outdated Systems for the Benefit of the CPSO, Its Members, And The Public
The CPSO envisioned standardizing and consolidating its regulatory functions on a single Microsoft platform to meet all operational needs. Deloitte was brought onboard as the system integration partner. Deloitte guided the CPSO in completing its cloud expansion, evaluating the various capabilities of the platform, and configuring them to meet the organization’s needs.
The modernization program involved three distinct workstreams built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The solution integrated Dynamics with Power Apps to create a tailored solution and deliver specific functionality and benefits like:
- Modernising the core regulatory functions (licensing, monitoring, and enforcement), including a new membership portal.
- Consolidating document and records management onto a single, cloud-based platform integrated with their CRM.
- Creating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to support back-office requirements and modernize the existing finance system.
Partnering with amazing CPSO leadership, we were able to help bring public trust, impact to society when it was needed most and realize out of the box thinking
—Joe Arumainayagam, Enterprise Technology & Performance Portfolio Leader, Deloitte Canada
Marshaling Transformation Skills and Mobilizing as One Team
A significant factor in the project’s success was the unified approach taken by the CPSO and Deloitte. Deloitte provided its expertise and experience to CPSO during every stage of the transformation. Deloitte harnessed its knowledge of financial advisory, regulatory, healthcare, cloud strategy, and digital practices. Moreover, Deloitte’s cloud practitioners provided CPSO with training on the cloud. Deloitte’s human capital practice team supported organizational restructuring and training strategy.
Delivering Measurable Value Tied to Strategic Goals
The digital transformation streamlined processes, transitioning from paper-based to digital formats. The result was a reduced workload. There were significant cost savings, with increased consistency in how the organization serves and interacts with its members. CPSO received a CIO Impact Award for improving its efficiency and responsiveness through digital transformation.
Specifically:
- In just over a year, CPSO and users exchanged over 44,000 messages digitally via the new self-service portal, which would have previously been done via email or phone calls.
- The transformation is projected to pay for itself in savings over seven years.
- Migrating to the cloud and creating a single platform system enabled CPSO to save money and keep membership fees unchanged throughout the transition because they could cancel server renewals.
- Zero layoffs occurred, and the human capital management team helped redefine the organization’s structure to avoid layoffs, moving resources to different functions and re-skilling.
- CPSO now serves doctors and members around their unique schedules. Since implementing the new self-service 24/7 portal, CPSO has received 80% of requests outside business hours.
We’ve achieved faster process times. We can see all the data in one place and we have version control. As a result, we can more effectively ensure quality care is provided by our members.
—Nathalie Novak, Chief Transformation Officer, College of Doctors and Surgeons of Ontario
