After big delays and expenses, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc announced Monday that the system, called the Dossier de santé du Québec, will be expanded to the Montreal area, the fourth region after Quebec City, the Eastern Townships and Lanaudière.
The delays and runaway costs of the DSQ prompted auditor-general Renaud Lachance to issue a blistering report last May.
Lachance called the project “a failure,” citing serious management problems.
He noted that the DSQ was budgeted in 2006 at $563 million and was to be in full operation by 2010 as Quebec’s leg of the Canada Health Infoway.
Bolduc’s government then committed to spending another $900 million to computerize patient health records, for a total of more than $1.4 billion when the entire system becomes operational in 2016.
As of May, Quebec had implemented 38 per cent of its DSQ, lagging behind other provinces that have implemented computerized health records at 74 per cent – and in the case of Alberta, 100 per cent.
The phase announced Monday is for the connection of Montreal to the system, and it will cost $10 million.
This phase involves creating an electronic file for about 1.9 million Montrealers with partial health information. The file will make three types of information accessible to health care professionals in computerized form: the results of laboratory and radiology exams, as well as drug prescriptions.
Bolduc’s office will launch an information campaign this month, sending e-health applications to residents by the post as of Feb. 20.
As of March 30, patients listed with the Quebec health insurance board will automatically get a computerized health file.
Individuals can opt out of the DSQ system. About one per cent of residents in regions already connected have refused, said Bolduc’s press attaché, Natacha Joncas-Boudreau.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Charlie Fidelman
Quelle/Source: The Montreal Gazette, 07.02.2012
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
