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Health Information Exchange (HIE) Systems
Last updated on April 1, 2025The Province runs HIE services that let healthcare applications share patient information (e.g., patient demographics, lab results, medical records, and prescriptions) with central clinical systems to improve the quality and coordination of care.
Software organizations must adhere to the ministry's conformance standards to access the Ministry’s HIE systems. These standards cover:
- Business rules
- Application enforced rules
- Privacy and security rules
- Training guidelines
- Technical specifications for data transmission
The Conformance, Integration & Standards (CIS) team oversees the conformance services and publication of conformance standards on the provincial HIE systems. The latest published version of the conformance standards is v3.6. If you have questions about the conformance process and documents, please reach out to CIS team at HLTH.CISSupport@gov.bc.ca.
The ministry's available HIE services include:
PharmaNet
PharmaNet: BC's provincial drug information and claims processing system that connects all community pharmacies to a central database.
More information and Conformance Standards for PharmaNet
- It records every prescription dispensed in BC and assists healthcare providers in identifying potential medication interactions and preventing prescription misuse
- Authorized users can submit prescription information, access patient medication histories, and update records with relevant details
- Learn about PharmaNet conformance standards
Provincial Client Registry
Provincial Client Registry (PCR): BC's official repository of healthcare client demographic information, such as Personal Health Numbers (PHN), name, date of birth, and contact details. Authorized users can search, store, update, and create patient demographic information within this registry.
More information and Conformance Standards for PCR
PCR helps:
- Assign a Personal Health Number (PHN) to individuals receiving healthcare
- Maintain demographic information (e.g., name, date of birth, address) associated with PHNs
- Connect identity information for individuals using healthcare services in BC
It can be used to:
- Find a client’s PHN and verify their Medical Services Plan (MSP) status
- Confirm identity using the BC Services Card
- Update client information (e.g., name, date of birth, address) linked to their PHN
- Create a PHN for new clients (e.g., newborns, newcomers to BC)
- Support clinical integration by identifying related numbers (e.g., PHN, Medical Record Number (MRN))
- Learn about PCR conformance standards
Provider and Location Registry
Provider and Location Registry (PLR): BC's central system for healthcare providers. It has their demographic and professional details, such as names, expertise, contact information, licensing status, and work locations. It supports patient referrals, informal consultations, and internal directories within the health sector.
More information and Conformance Standards for PLR
Potential uses of PLR are to:
- Identify referral options and contact referral providers
- Identify and contact a patient’s healthcare providers (e.g., prescribing physician, dispensing pharmacist)
- Identify a provider for an informal consult and
- Prepare for patient transfer to a new primary provider
- Learn about PLR conformance standards
Provincial Laboratory Information Solution
Provincial Laboratory Information Solution (PLIS) contains diagnostic lab test results from private and public laboratories across BC.
Note: At this time there are no new integrations permitted with PLIS until a new transport mechanism is determined. In the meantime, existing applications with access to PLIS are permitted to continue.
For more information, refer to:
Contact us
For more information about the conformance standards, please contact the Conformance, Integration and Standards (CIS) team at: