Premier says N.S. is ready for new medical health records system despite calls for delay

Premier Tim Houston says Nova Scotia’s health-care system is ready for the expansion of a new electronic medical records system on Saturday, despite calls for a delay from a union representing health-care workers and the province’s opposition parties.

They argue Nova Scotia Health staff haven’t received adequate training and the system isn’t ready. But Houston says it’s time to launch.

“It’s really important to the health-care system, right now we have so many different systems that are trying to talk to each other,” Houston said Thursday.

“We have patients who are having to sit down and tell their own story numerous times. That’s not efficient.”

Several health-care workers told CBC News a rumour is circulating that the province will be financially penalized due to a contract clause if the system expansion doesn’t launch on schedule this weekend.

“I’m not aware of that and I would just dispel that categorically,” Houston said. “We would never put patients at risk because of a clause in a contract. Ever.”

Houston’s comments come as the NSGEU, one of the biggest health-care unions in the province, called for a delay of the May 9 launch in the central zone, saying staff aren’t properly trained.

A number of front-line employees who spoke confidentially to CBC said they fear there will be patient harms because the system isn’t fully built and they haven’t had the time to test their specific job functions.

“My dad used to say if you’re not nervous, you’re not ready,” said Houston.

“It’s time to move forward. This is a project that has been in the making for over 10 years, I guess — thousands and thousands of hours of preparation.”

Tanya Nixon, the vice-president at Nova Scotia Health in charge of OPOR, also told CBC she is unaware of any financial penalties written in the contract associated with the rollout dates.

“We’re live on May 9 because implementing an integrated clinical information system in Nova Scotia is the right thing to do for patients inside Nova Scotia,” Nixon said.

“There’s been an abundance of readiness work and what we’re hearing from the majority of our providers and end users is we’re ready to go.”

The OPOR system launched at the IWK Health Centre in December and is scheduled to launch this weekend at all hospitals in the province’s central zone, which includes the Halifax area, the Eastern Shore and West Hants.

Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin said there are still too many unanswered questions about the province’s deal with Oracle Health Canada.

He’s asked the auditor general to conduct an audit of the $365-million contract, which spans 10 years.

Rankin said other provinces have more advanced systems in place.

“It’s not user-friendly,” he said.

“I’d like to know a full analysis of the decision-making, a full analysis of the jurisdictional scan across the country and why we ended up with such a bare-bones, bottom-of-the-barrel system.”

Rankin said the goal of modernizing the system is widely supported, but he questions why the decision was made to buy a baseline product.

“So far this system has been adding administrative burden and slowing down patient care in the hospitals,” Rankin said.

‘It has to happen right’

Nova Scotia Health and the IWK both say slowdowns are necessary and only temporary as staff work to adjust to a significant change to their workflow.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender reiterated her call for a delay of the rollout after hearing the premier speak.

“Everyone knows we need electronic medical records, it should’ve happened 10 years ago, it should’ve happened 15 years ago, it’s time for it to happen now, but it has to happen right,” she said.

“This is an enormously complex system, and what we are hearing from front-line workers and physicians is that it is not working well yet. The training has not allowed [health-care staff] to do things in real time.”

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