"As eHealth Ontario takes on more of its own leadership, they will be taking more of that work on inhouse," Caplan said.
"What I've said to the board ... is we must deliver value for taxpayers. It's my expectation that money will be spent wisely and well and that we'll be able to demonstrate results for what it is we're investing in."
Caplan noted eHealth is just starting up and is more likely to rely on outside help in its infancy. It was created out of the ashes of a Smart Systems for Health, which was scrapped last September after a damning operational review and meagre progress in developing an electronic health records system.
Between the two agencies, taxpayers were billed for $67.2 million in consulting fees since 2007, including $100,000 annually for customer satisfaction surveys. That's notwithstanding the 166 direct employees who pulled in salaries of more than $100,000.
Caplan said eHealth will have to perform for the money it's getting.
"I will be looking at what are they achieving," he said. "Are we setting up the diabetes registry? Are we linking medical professionals together? Are we getting greater use of the technology? Those are the metrics, those are the results that I'll be looking for."
The consultants' fees represent about 15% of the agency's total budget, which is not unreasonable, Caplan said.
"When you look at information technology, that is not out of line with what the industry norm would be," he said. "It is an expensive undertaking. We're putting in substantial resources because we believe it is truly transformative and critically important to better the health care for Ontarians."
Opposition parties scoffed at that though and said Ontario is throwing tax dollars down a hole in its quest for an electronic health record.
"It's pretty hard to fathom why they would require those kinds of dollars, when they have 166 people on staff making over a $100,000 a year," Interim Opposition Leader Bob Runciman said of the consultant fees.
"What are they doing there? The premier doesn't seem to have an answer for it or an explanation for it."
The fees are outrageous, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said, especially when so many there areas of health care are starved for cash.
"Three hundred (consultant) contracts let in a year -- that's almost a contract a day," Horwath said. "That's not wise use of taxpayer dollars in my estimation."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jonathan Jenkins
Quelle/Source: Northern Daily News, 15.05.2009
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