Queensway Carleton Hospital, Hôpital Montfort and The Royal are among eight Eastern Ontario hospitals that have joined the Atlas Alliance’s shared digital health-records system, according to an announcement published October 27.

The partnership uses Epic to connect records across participating organizations, including The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Patients can access information through the MyChart portal.

For Ottawa residents receiving care at multiple partner hospitals, the change is intended to make information easier for care teams to share. Hospitals caution that some appointments, tests and visits may take longer during the first days and weeks as staff learn the system.

MyChart is free. The Royal’s current instructions say patients who already have an account with a participating organization do not need a new one. New users can ask a registration clerk for an activation code or follow the online registration instructions linked below.

Official sources: The Royal’s October 27 announcement; The Royal’s MyChart instructions; Montfort’s participating-hospital list.