Reclaiming 34 hours a year: how a standardized EMR diabetes workflow improves care and reduces administrative burden
What could your team do with an extra 34 hours a year?
Diabetes care often involves repetitive administrative tasks, inconsistent screening processes, and complex billing requirements that take valuable time away from patient care. This session showcases how one family health team transformed diabetes management through a standardized EMR workflow that streamlines coding, foot ulcer risk screening, lab ordering, billing and more.
Using real-world results from nearly 1,000 patients, attendees will learn how EMR customization helped improve guideline-based care, reduce cognitive load, and return more than 34 hours annually to clinicians and care teams. Discover practical strategies that can be adopted to support diabetes care and other chronic disease programs in community practice.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe how a standardized EMR-based diabetes workflow can reduce manual tasks and streamline both clinical and administrative processes in primary care.
- Evaluate the potential time savings achieved through streamlining workflow of chart reviews, screening forms, coding, and billing activities.
- Apply key EMR customization principles to support guideline-concordant diabetes care, reduce administrative burden, and reclaim clinician time.
Speakers:
- Denis Tsang, Quality and Digital Health Strategist, Woodbridge Medical Centre Family Health Team
- Natalie Richards, MD, Family Physician, Woodbridge Medical Centre Family Health Team
Presenter Bios:
Denis Tsang
Denis Tsang is a Quality and Digital Health Strategist and Registered Dietitian at Woodbridge Medical Centre Family Health Team and a Quality Improvement and Performance Lead at the Alliance for Healthier Communities. Since 2024, Denis has served as Board Chair of the College of Dietitians of Ontario. He is also a Lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Previously in the capacity of Quality & Innovation Program Manager at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, Denis focuses on the impact of data-driven digital health interventions on clinical outcomes, health equity, and cost-effectiveness in healthcare. He leverages his clinical expertise and technological knowledge of digital health solutions and electronic medical records to support equitable patient care and team-based primary care across Ontario.
Natalie Richards, MD
Dr. Natalie Richards is a family physician practicing comprehensive family medicine at Woodbridge Medical Centre Family Health Team (WMCFHT), where she has been practicing since completing her residency in 2021. She completed her undergraduate studies at McMaster University and her medical degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, graduating in 2019. She subsequently completed her Family Medicine residency at the University of Toronto in 2021.
Dr. Richards is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine and serves as the Clinical Lead for the Diabetes Committee at WMCFHT.
Date
- Oct 01 2026
Time
- 3:40 pm - 4:10 pm
