The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has learned via whistleblowers that B.C. Emergency Health Services, which runs the B.C. Ambulance Service, has dumped its highly touted, $2.8 million Electronic Patient Care Record system – before it even went into use.
A posting on the BCEHS Intranet, obtained by the CTF, reports: “BCEHS has been working hard to develop an ePCR system our needs for reliability, quality and functionality and can integrate with existing systems in hospital emergency departments. Unfortunately, the vendor was unable to meet our business requirements.”
Read more: CA: British Columbia: Another expensive provincial computer foul-up
I am concerned that recent comments by acting provincial auditor Judy Ferguson do not fully depict the positive impact our province's current electronic health record is having on Saskatchewan residents.
Read more: CA: Saskatchewan: eHealth benefits patients already
HSN is one of seven health-care providers across Canada to receive the LEADing Practice Award from Canada Health Infoway (Infoway), in partnership with Accreditation Canada. The hospital's Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care Clinics earned the LEADing Practice Award for developing a system of electronic patient scheduling, documentation, decision support and record sharing that enabled staff to work collaboratively with local and regional team members.
Read more: CA: HSN expands e-health record use, earns national award
For patients in rural or remote places where there are no family doctors or specialists, or for those with limited mobility, it’s a remarkable technological advancement. Doctors don’t have to travel, nor do patients, and medical advice is delivered quickly.
The government of British Columbia, Canada, had a problem. The province’s CareCard technology — the identity card BC residents use to access health services — was more than 20 years old and had never been significantly updated. Even worse, the number of CareCards issued significantly outnumbered the population of the province (4.5 million).