Closing the Digital Adoption Gap to Reclaim Capacity | Docnote | OntarioMD Conference 2026

How much capacity is already inside Ontario's healthcare system, but being used up by work that could be done more efficiently? Family physician Dr. John O'Mahony gave this talk at the OntarioMD Digital Health Conference 2026 (October 1, 2026, Exhibition Place, Toronto). Healthcare has digitized the clinical encounter: EMRs, electronic billing, e-prescribing, e-referrals, HRM and now AI scribes. Uninsured and third-party work got left behind. Forms, sick notes, insurance paperwork and prescription renewals outside appointments still run on phone calls, paper and memory. A clinical decision that takes a minute can take up to 12 minutes of someone's time once you count the calls, handoffs, payment and follow-up. When his own team said they needed to hire, Dr. O'Mahony first audited where the time was going. In a capitated practice netting $250,000 a year, a $60,000 position cuts the practice's net by close to 25%. The audit found three capacity leaks, and fixing them meant the extra hire wasn't needed. In this talk: Why the work around the appointment is a capacity problem, not a billing problem The three capacity leaks: communication and coordination, payment friction, and open loops Real workflows in PS Suite: prescription renewals, sick notes, in-office payment and pre-paid forms Why three people (the physician, the team and the patient) all have to say yes before a new workflow sticks How an hour saved in one office becomes hundreds of thousands of hours across the system CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:16 The capacity challenge 1:20 Where are we still spending time? 2:21 Uninsured and third-party work got left behind 3:17 The disproportionate burden 5:38 Auditing our own practice 7:03 Three things eating our capacity 7:52 Where Docnote came from 9:29 Leak 1: Communication and coordination 12:43 Leak 2: Payment friction 15:01 Leak 3: Open loops 16:41 Three leaks, three fixes 17:46 The digital adoption gap 18:25 Three people have to say yes 21:08 Capacity creates choice 21:38 What we've learned 22:18 To the leaders in the room 23:01 Thank you ABOUT THE SPEAKER Dr. John O'Mahony is a family physician in Sarnia, Ontario, in practice since 2010. He is lead physician of the Sarnia Physicians Family Health Organization (29 physicians), sits on committees with the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team, and is an Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. Disclosure: Dr. O'Mahony is a co-founder of Docnote. Docnote was a Platinum sponsor of the OntarioMD Digital Health Conference 2026. Want to see how this works in your practice? docnote.com #PrimaryCare #DigitalHealth #OntarioMD