Hôpital Montfort Establishes an Innovative Partnership to Accelerate Emergency Department Care

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Patients coming to Hôpital Montfort’s Emergency Department can now begin their registration and self-assessment before reaching triage — from a tablet in the waiting room, their own smartphone, or even from home via a free app.

The EmergConnect solution, a secure Canadian digital platform for preregistration and pre-triage, was successfully evaluated through OBIO’s Life Sciences Critical Technologies & Commercialization (LSCTC) Centre of Excellence, in partnership with the Institut du Savoir Montfort. The evaluation took place in the Montfort Emergency Department over several months, with the goal of reducing wait times, improving the patient experience, and easing the administrative workload of the clinical teams.

Based on preliminary results, Montfort procured the EmergConnect technology through OBIO’s Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN^®), and was the first hospital to do so in the Ottawa region. EAHN^® is supported by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and LSCTC is supported by the Government of Ontario.

EmergConnect allows patients to complete a guided questionnaire before meeting with a triage nurse, using a free app on their own mobile devices or on tablets provided in the Emergency Department. They can provide information about their symptoms, relevant medical history, and reason for their visit. With their consent, this information is made available to clinical teams from the earliest stages of triage. The platform also includes an electronic pre-triage feature for paramedics, which allows care coordination to begin even before patients transported by ambulance arrive at the Emergency Department. Completing this process in advance is optional; all patients presenting to the Emergency Department are assessed according to the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS).

For Hôpital Montfort, Ontario’s francophone academic hospital, this partnership reflects a patient-centred approach to innovation. By adding a self-assessment step before triage, Montfort aims to accelerate patient care, enable frontline teams to spend more time with patients, and improve the speed and efficiency of care coordination in the Emergency Department.

Evaluating and implementing the solution through OBIO’s LSCTC Centre of Excellence and EAHN^® also allows Hôpital Montfort and the Institut du Savoir Montfort to generate real-world evidence that can support the broader adoption of promising Canadian health technologies across other hospitals.

“The collaboration between Hôpital Montfort, the Institut du Savoir Montfort, and EmergConnect is a concrete lever to transform the way we work: by partnering with innovative organizations and reducing administrative tasks, we enable our teams to focus on what matters most — patient- and community-centred care.”
— Marie Parish, Clinical Director, Critical Care, Hôpital Montfort

“Emergency care should begin the moment a patient decides they need help - not when the paperwork is done. Our partnership with Hôpital Montfort, the Institut du Savoir Montfort, and OBIO^® makes that possible: patients arrive already heard, and clinicians get their time back for care. Innovation is how Canadian healthcare will meet the capacity our communities need in the years ahead, and it takes leaders like Montfort and the Institut du Savoir Montfort to make that possible for everyone else.”
— Ron Galaev, CEO, EmergConnect

“Through OBIO’s EAHN^® and LSCTC Centre of Excellence, Canadian companies with innovations like EmergConnect can partner with early adopter hospitals to generate real-world evidence that will support the procurement of solutions that address urgent care challenges. This partnership with Hôpital Montfort and Institut du Savoir Montfort shows how a positive evaluation can accelerate the integration of promising health technologies and improve the efficiency of the care coordination experience for both patients and clinical teams.”
— Dr. Maura Campbell, President and CEO, OBIO^®

In the coming months, Hôpital Montfort and the Institut du Savoir Montfort will continue to evaluate the impact of EmergConnect on wait times, patient experience, and staff workload to inform the next steps and help refine the technology to meet the realities of the healthcare sector. The project demonstrates what innovation looks like when it is designed with people in mind — by delivering an experience that is more patient- and community-centred. The solution has already sparked interest from several other organizations in the region.

More information about the platform and how to use it is available at: hopitalmontfort.com/en/emergency.

About OBIO^®
Founded in 2009, OBIO^® is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization OBIO^® is prioritizing the evaluation of new technologies through its Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN^®), supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and focusing on implementing new solutions using critical technologies through its Life Sciences Critical Technologies & Commercialization (LSCTC) Centre of Excellence, supported by the Government of Ontario. OBIO^® is engaged in strategy, programming, policy development and advocacy to address the needs of the next generation of companies developing innovative human health products.

For more information, please visit OBIO.ca, follow OBIO^® on LinkedIn and X, or contact Doriane Rey, Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications at OBIO^®.

About EmergConnect
EmergConnect is a clinical AI company focused on making healthcare as much about human connection as possible. Rather than adding another record to document, EmergConnect works alongside existing hospital systems to automate the clinical workflows that sit between information and action: capturing the encounter, surfacing the right evidence at the point of decision, routing patients through protocols, and closing the loop across transitions in care. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Ontario. EmergConnect is deployed and in partnership with hospitals and research institutes across Canada, including academic, community and rural sites.

For more information, please visit emergconnect.com or contact [e-mail].

About Hôpital Montfort
Montfort is Ontario’s Francophone academic hospital, providing exemplary person- and community-centred care. Montfort is one of two hospitals in Canada that: are teaching hospitals; serve a general population; have intensive care, obstetric, mental health, rehabilitation and other acute care beds; are among the top 40 hospitals out of over 600 in Canada, as well as the top 40 research hospitals in the country; and have no performance indicators below average or weakening, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Awarded the highest distinction by Accreditation Canada four times in a row, Montfort is the first hospital to be designated Francophone host as a Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

For more information: [e-mail]

About the Institut du Savoir Montfort
Created in 2015, Institut du Savoir Montfort (ISM) is Montfort’s academic and scientific pillar, dedicated to teaching, research, and innovation in healthcare. Its mission is to serve as a unique French-language environment that combines teaching, research, and innovation in healthcare. Through its initiatives, ISM helps train the next generation of professionals and disseminate new knowledge to improve patient care.

For more information: [e-mail]