Innovation Spotlight: How William Osler Health System Digitized the Pre-Anesthesia Process to Improve Surgical Throughput

At the SeamlessMD 2025 Customer Conference, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Sandy Lum-Johnston, Business Manager at William Osler Health System to discuss one of the most innovative uses of our platform to date: transforming the Pre-Anesthesia Clinic (PAC) workflow to increase efficiency and streamline surgical readiness.

The Challenge: A Bottleneck in Pre-Op Clearance

Like many hospitals and health systems, William Osler’s surgical workflow faced a common challenge - delays in the pre-anesthesia process that slowed down surgical throughput, and led to patients being cleared at the very last minute. Moreover, the process required the Pre-Anesthesia Clinic (PAC) to coordinate with over 90 physician offices across 35,000+ surgeries per year, primarily through phone and fax. Not an easy task!

The Solution: A Digitized PAC Workflow with SeamlessMD

Working closely with SeamlessMD, William Osler digitized their pre-anesthesia process into a streamlined, patient-friendly, and data-driven workflow. Here’s how it works:

1. Patients Complete the Anesthetic Questionnaire at Home
   Instead of filling out the lengthy health-history form in-person, patients now submit this anesthesia intake digitally through SeamlessMD - anytime, from anywhere, with as much time as they need. Physician offices and the William Osler PAC team get access to complete questionnaires in one spot - saving time and enabling clear communication.

2. Clinical Decision Support Built-In and Improving the Time spent with Patients
   The platform automatically processes questionnaire responses to generate a recommended PAC intervention based on a clinical algorithm (e.g. cleared for surgery, needs a nurse phone call, needs an anesthesia consult, etc.). This supports the triaging process, and reduces the manual screening time that is required. The PAC team also benefits from more complete and accurate patient responses.
3. Real-Time Tracking with Custom Dashboards
   From the provider view, the surgeon offices are able to upload additional required documents and confirm completion of key steps. The PAC team uses the SeamlessMD dashboards to track each patient’s status in real time - from intake to clearance. A dynamic patient roster gives them visibility into the patient funnel and reduces unnecessary communications between PAC and the offices.

4. Throughput Data for Resource Management
   Dashboards show a birds-eye view of PAC throughput, which allows the team to better understand their volume demand and bottlenecks in the process. Access to this real-time data supports resourcing decisions and allows them to track improvements.

The Impact: A More Efficient Path to Surgery

William Osler’s transformation of the pre-surgical process has led to a number of benefits

• Clarity on a patient’s status throughout the PAC process
• Easier for the physician offices and PAC to see what documents are missing
• Time saved and fewer lost charts from no longer having to fax 
• Reduced phone calls back and forth between offices and pre-anesthesia
• Reduced patient time at hospital as they complete the anesthesia intake and review key documents at home
• Easier to complete patient anesthesia questionnaire at home – more accurate answers (as patients are not not rushed and have all their information readily available at home) 
• Time saved for PAC screeners as the questionnaire is automatically scored

A Digitized Pre-Anesthesia Journey complements Digital Care Journeys for the rest of Pre-op Prep and Post-op Recovery

Beyond the pre-admission process, William Osler also leverages SeamlessMD to digitize the rest of the surgical journey for patients - providing automated reminders, patient education, and symptom tracking from preparation through recovery.

With digital care journeys available for all surgical patients across its three hospital sites, William Osler has made SeamlessMD a core part of their surgical operations - and a model for digital innovation in perioperative care.

According to patient feedback:

• 90% would recommend SeamlessMD to others
• 39% avoided one or more phone calls to the care team
• 13% avoided at least one emergency department visit

A Look Ahead

Digitizing the entire process - from pre-anesthesia to post-op recovery - is just one example of how SeamlessMD can support surgical transformation. By integrating patient engagement, clinical triage, and operational dashboards, William Osler has created a digital surgical care journey that’s safer, faster, and more scalable.

We’re proud to support their vision - and excited to see what they do next.