The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) was modernising into a digital regulator when COVID struck. Hospitals became congested with COVID patients, and mobile pandemic units needed health care workers to staff them. Suddenly, accelerating certifying doctors while ensuring that they had the proper credentials became urgent and vital to Canada's response to the pandemic.
Building trust and capability in our health care systems during COVID and beyond
For over 150 years, The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has played a crucial role in Ontario's health system. As a self-regulating body, CPSO regulates the practice of medicine and ensures the public's trust in the medical care they receive.
Before its transformation, CPSO's manual and paper-based processes, growing trove of data and disconnected systems had become difficult to manage. Members had little visibility or control over their data, while communication was limited to mail, email, fax, or phone calls. Staff operated on a nine-to-five business model, responding to members' requests only during these core business hours.
Technical barriers to workflow and information flow between stakeholders meant that the regulator lacked a holistic view of its members, posed security risks and created a fragmented user experience.
Transforming outdated systems to benefit the CPSO, its member doctors, and the public
CPSO's vision was to standardise and consolidate its regulatory functions on Microsoft's single platform to meet all its operational needs.
CPSO had already begun undergoing their journey to the cloud when they brought on Deloitte as their system integration partner. Deloitte guided the regulator on completing their cloud expansion and the different capabilities available on the platform and how best to configure them to meet the organisation's needs.
The modernisation programme was comprised of three distinct workstreams and would be built on CPSO’s selection of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and combined Dynamics with Power Apps to create a tailored solution. The programme would deliver specific functionality and benefits including:
- Modernising the core regulatory functions (licensing, monitoring, enforcement), including introducing a new membership portal.
- Consolidating document and records management to a single, cloud-based platform - integrated with their CRM.
- Creating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to support back-office requirements and modernise the existing finance system.
Marshalling vital transformation skills and mobilising as one team
Much of the success of this project was attributed to CPSO and Deloitte mobilising as one team, operating with one purpose. As part of the partnership, CPSO could draw on Deloitte’s domain expertise crucial at every stage of a transformation journey, from financial advisory, regulatory, health care, digital practices and beyond.
Deloitte's cloud practitioners supported CPSO's ongoing cloud strategy with additional training on adopting and adapting to a cloud-first world. They also leveraged expertise from Deloitte’s human capital practice to support their organisational restructuring and training strategy.
Delivering immediate, measurable value tied to strategic goals
MCPSO's digital transformation has streamlined operational processes (moving them from paper-based to digital), reduced workload, driven cost savings and brought consistency across the organisation regarding how it serves and interacts with its members.
- CPSO received a CIO Impact Award for using digital transformation to become a more efficient and responsive regulator.
- In just over 1 year, CPSO and users have exchanged 44,000+ messages digitally through the new self-service portal, which would have previously been done via email or phone calls.
- The transformation is already a third paid off after just two years up and running (it was estimated to pay for itself in savings over seven years).
- Migrating to the cloud and creating a single platform system enabled CPSO to cancel several server renewals, save money, and keep membership fees unchanged throughout the transition.
- Zero layoffs as part of CPSO's transformation. Deloitte's human capital management team helped redefine the organisation's structure, moving resources to different functions and re-skilling to avoid layoffs.
- CPSO serves doctors and members around their unique schedules. Since implementing its new self-service 24/7 portal, CPSO has received 80% of requests outside business hours.
Get in touch
