It’s long past time a solution is found for Island Health’s electronic record system.
B.C.’s new health minister Adrian Dix has launched a review into IHealth, an electronic health record system that rolled out in March 2016.
It’s the second probe by the province in just over a year, and this one will be broader, according to Dix, who said it’ll look at where the health authority is on recommendations from an earlier report as well as the financial status of the project, future costs, problems and fixes. The review will be done by Ernst and Young.
There is nothing wrong with exploring a system to get a handle on what has to be addressed and how; it informs decision making and with $72 million already spent, we want to make sure the best decisions are made for the future of the system. But what’s also important is action.
There seems to be widespread support, from the province, health authority and doctors, of electronic health records in general, but the IHealth system implemented at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, Dufferin and Oceanside has faced ongoing push back from some of its users since it was implemented.
Doctors, for example, delivered a non-confidence vote in the new system to the health authority last year and requested the ordering system be removed while it’s worked on. They had concerns then about IHealth slowing the pace of treatment in critical areas such as the hospitals’ emergency room and missing or misplaced orders.
There was also a B.C. Nurses Union study in February and March 2017 on IHealth with 396 responses, the majority from NRGH. It showed that 57 per cent of respondents don’t feel changes and improvements to the system happen quickly when serious problems are identified, 67 per cent feel the system takes time away from their patient care and 54 per cent agree IHealth puts patient safety at risk.
Dr. David Forrest, president of the Nanaimo Medical Staff Association, has raised patient safety concerns since 2016 including that medications are being dropped off the medication record and orders being altered in the system which can lead to error. He’s also part of a group in internal medicine at NRGH that returned to writing paper orders in April no longer feeling they could support an electronic computer order management process.
Despite Island Health’s efforts around education, training and system improvements, there continues to be concerns about IHealth from some medical professionals. That the people patients trust most with their care don’t all have confidence in the system and continue to point out issues with it, does nothing to build the public’s faith in IHealth and the public health system.
The paperless record system is a major investment and it’s been more than a year since it was implemented in Nanaimo. We are past the time of political blame games and stalemates. It’s time for all the players to find a way to make the system live up to the potential it’s believed electronic health records have and hopefully this latest review is a stepping stone toward that collaboration and a solution.
