IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The first phase of the portal is expected to go live in late 2009. Once fully implemented, residents and businesses will see a dramatic improvement in online service capabilities.

After being turned down last year for help through “Rural Connections”, an Ontario program set up to help local communities get the benefit of Internet services, county officials are set to try again, and are more optimistic of success this time around.

Eager to counter two years of bad publicity over a multimillion-dollar spending scandal, Ontario's health minister boasted Tuesday that the province's overhauled electronic-health records program had managed to get five million patients on to digital medical charts.

Critics say Ontario, the federal government and other provinces, however, are still squandering billions by relying on expensive commercial software to implement electronic health records, rather than free, open-source programs that are proving effective and much less costly.

"Electronic medical health records are extremely important for not only improving the speed of care, but also the accuracy of care," said Ivan Langrish, the health minister's press secretary. "To have all of your medical records in place (means doctors) don't have to sift through a paper chart. Everything is all directly online."

The ruling means the country’s largest telephone companies must allocate $733 million out of special ‘deferral accounts’ towards customer rebates and rural broadband. This includes $310 million rebated to urban home telephone customers, and $422 million to deploy broadband Internet service to 287 rural and remote communities.

When the first patients walk through the doors of William Osler Health Centre's new Brampton Civic Hospital in a couple of weeks, they will be entering a hospital like no other in Canada - but one that will increasingly become the standard for health-care delivery across the country.

From check-in and lab tests to bedside care and drug dispensing, the $550-million hospital northwest of Toronto is a model of electronic health - or e-health, as it's been dubbed.

EHealth Ontario announced this week that the last of the 26 hospitals in the Erie St. Clair and South West Local Health Integration Networks have been connected to access a central repository of digital images and test results.

"The new system eliminates film for use in X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and allows files to be stored in a central repository where can be instantly available to a doctor anywhere in the region," said Greg Reed, president and CEO of eHealth Ontario.

An Ontario Auditor’s report recently exposed a new version of the eHealth scandal when it was revealed that taxpayers’ money was still being funnelled to Liberal-friendly consultants long after Premier Dalton McGuinty promised to kill such payments in the aftermath of the original scandal.

In the first version, about $1 billion was spent on consultants to produce a digital health care information system, but nothing of substance was actually produced.

It's gone from two nurses on 'phone duty' to seven nurses answering about 125 calls a day.

The Durham Health Connection Line helps residents find services and provides health education advice.

Rita Lajoie, a public health nurse with Durham Region, says the type of calls include such topics as parenting, travel health and immunization, prenatal inquiries, how to quit smoking, breastfeeding help and post-partum depression.

Although out-of-hospital records such as private lab test results and prescriptions are unavailable, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) wants people to know an electronic patient information system is closer than most would think.

It is still in a rollout phase, but “we have 3,000 physicians and clinicians (out of 15,000) enrolled and we continue to add hospitals onto the system,” said Mark Farrow, HHS assistant vice-president of information and technologies. The Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN e-health version, spearheaded by HHS, will also tap into the Wellington Waterloo LHIN’s hospitals.

The "eHealth Ontario" initiative will also connect doctors, patients and pharmacists electronically to better manage the flow, safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs and cut wait times at Ontario hospitals, the head of the group developing the program says.

More residents and businesses in rural southern Ontario will soon be in the fast lane with access to high-speed Internet services in their communities, announced Chatham-Kent-Essex MPP Pat Hoy.

“In today’s economy, high-speed is essential for success and growth. This program is an investment in the future prosperity of Rural Ontario and the McGuinty government is eager to help make that prosperity a reality,” said Hoy.

Through the Rural Connections Broadband program, the Ontario government is set to offer nearly $300,000 to expand South Glengarry's Internet access, increasing the area's high-speed coverage to 98 from 63 per cent. South Dundas and South Stormont are eligible for $77,677.

A priority of bringing faster Internet to rural areas could benefit local townships as part of the federal and provincial governments' joint $6.2-billion funding announcement last week.

The two levels of government finally shook hands on Ontario's portion of the national Building Canada plan that will invest $33 billion in long-term funding for infrastructure across the country.

For the first time, all 26 hospitals from the Bruce Peninsula to Windsor -- including London, Chatham, Woodstock, Sarnia, and Stratford -- are linked to a repository of digital images and test results via the Internet.

"This is about providing as much information to the front line practitioners as quickly as possible so they can provide the best level of care to the patient," said Greg Reed, the head of eHealth Ontario.

The County of Simcoe is eligible to receive up to $1 million in provincial funding to start local broadband infrastructure projects, through the Rural Connections Broadband program.

Timmins is one of six cities to be part of the first phase of the Ontario Telehomecare initiative, a partnership of Canada Health Infoway, the Ontario Telemedicine Network and the provincial government.

That’s one of the intentions under reforms to improve rural services within the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network.

Rural residents want a good level of health care services, which new reforms are seeking to ensure, chief executive Sandra Hanmer said Monday.

Numbers compiled by the Opposition Conservatives also show administrative costs ballooned to $80 million last year from $50 million in 2006-07, the first year of the LHINs' existence.

“The IT subcommittee will help the City to deliver service excellence,” said Councillor Wilkinson. “It will explore technologies and solutions to improve client service and achieve increased efficiencies, while providing an opportunity to work with Ottawa’s high-tech community, the unique resources of which can provide added value to the City in dealing with technology issues.”