Island Health has paid out close to $80,000 in compensation to doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital for extra time spent on its new electronic record system.
But Dr. David Forrest, president of the Nanaimo Medical Staff Association, said doctors weren’t asking for compensation and the majority felt it was an inappropriate use of money.
The health authority offered compensation for on-call and emergency room doctors, recognizing the “extra burden” the new electronic health record system has placed on physicians during the roll-out phase of IHealth, according to a July 12 memo from Dr. Jeremy Etherington, executive vice-president and chief medical officer for Island Health.
Val Wilson, Island Health spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that money for doctor education is not new and funding is provided for doctors on a regular basis.
Terms were that on-call physicians would be paid $260 per day of call, “only if the department or division agrees to provide care using all currently available IHealth modules,” and between the dates of July 1 and Sept. 5, the memo shows.
Of 167 doctors eligible for the compensation, a quarter signed up and 39 have received dollars to date. There’s approximately $10,000 still outstanding, Island Health estimates.
Emergency room doctors were also offered compensation but no claims have been submitted.
The offer of compensation came weeks after Island Health had rejected a plea by doctors in late June to have the system suspended until issues were resolved. It opted to continue to operate its system but take immediate steps to address staff fatigue and boost staff trust.
The system has been under review by a third party and the B.C. Ministry of Health expects to release a report soon.
Forrest said compensation was a recommendation of the Health Authority Medical Advisory Committee to the Island Health board. Doctors are paid on a fee-for-service basis, for things such as consultations and hospital admissions. He said the problem was because of an increased work load; doctors were either not able to provide the service or they were having to work much longer.
He said the compensation was not unreasonable, but he also said a majority of physicians felt it was an inappropriate use of public money because “it’s not paying for service, it’s paying for not providing service, and we didn’t think that was really sustainable or appropriate,” he said, adding many felt they wouldn’t take the money.
Leonard Krog, MLA for Nanaimo, said doctors and nurses were clear the system was placing patients’ health and safety at risk. Months later it hasn’t worked and the payment on top of it, to the public, looks awful.
“They are basically saying, ‘we realize we presented some difficulties and we’re going to give you extra compensation,’ which is, you know, probably a very fair thing to do, but it doesn’t get to the root of the problem which is that the system is not safe and it’s not functioning the way it’s supposed to and it’s cost millions and millions of dollars, much of which appears to have been wasted,” he said.
