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The president of the Nova Scotia Nurses\u2019 Union says trying to address challenges related to the launch of a new electronic medical record system is like \u201cputting your finger in a dam,\u201d and she\u2019s nervous about a broader rollout planned for this spring.<\/p>\n
Janet Hazelton is one of a group of voices that emerged this week after One Person One Record made its debut in December at the IWK Health Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur nurses are extremely frustrated,\u201d Hazelton said in an interview Tuesday. She said the IWK is listening to feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to imply that they\u2019re not listening, but there\u2019s just so many problems that it\u2019s like putting your finger in a dam. It seems that they solve one issue which sometimes creates another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Started too soon’<\/p>\n
One Person One Record, or OPOR, was launched at the Halifax children\u2019s hospital<\/a> with plans to expand more broadly this spring. The $365-million system, designed by health-care giant Oracle Cerner,<\/a> is intended to replace paper medical records and lead to better co-ordination.<\/p>\n But Hazelton said so far her members find it cumbersome, and it\u2019s causing delays admitting patients in part because basic tasks are taking much longer than they used to as staff try to navigate the new system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe employer is giving them lots of support, lots of IT support, but it\u2019s not enough. They feel that it was started too soon, and that they ought to have gotten more education and they ought to have worked out some of the kinks before going live.\u201d<\/p>\n Hazelton is not the only one raising concerns.<\/p>\n Internal memos acknowledge frustrations<\/p>\n On Monday, senior officials overseeing the rollout of OPOR pledged in an internal memo to do better, and the president of Doctors Nova Scotia acknowledged frustrations in a message to her membership.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past several weeks, we have heard clearly from IWK physicians, clinical teams, and administrative leaders about the ongoing challenges with the new clinical information system,\u201d reads the email from the OPOR senior leadership team, obtained by CBC News.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the strain this is placing on care delivery, workflows, and confidence in the system itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Doctors Nova Scotia president Dr. Shelly McNeil sent her membership an email that said they \u201crecognize that this transition has been complex, demanding and at times deeply frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n McNeil goes on to say that Doctors Nova Scotia officials have \u201cset clear expectations with the OPOR project team that physicians must receive more frequent, substantive and transparent updates on the work underway” to address challenges being experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cStronger communication and meaningful feedback loops with physicians are essential, particularly before further rollout across the province.\u201d<\/p>\n 3 key issues<\/p>\n The email from the OPOR leadership team identifies three issues it says are causing the greatest disruption with the system:<\/p>\n Routing, which leads to \u201cdelays, inaccuracies, or misidentified clinical information.\u201dAmbulatory care workflows, which is \u201caffecting scheduling, documentation and access to essential information.\u201dWaitlist management within ambulatory care, which is \u201climiting visibility into patient needs and affecting prioritization.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAdditionally, we recognize there has been concern with the overall stability of the clinical information system,\u201d the email says. \u201cWe are meeting with senior leaders at Oracle Health to assess the root cause, seek immediate solutions, and implement these with urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n The email goes on to say that as efforts are made to address the issues, officials are \u201cactively evaluating all readiness considerations, including lessons learned from the IWK, to ensure the success of the upcoming go-live in May.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to resolving these issues and rebuilding your confidence in the system and in our OPOR team. The vision behind One Person One Record remains strong, and we believe in its ability to support better care, better coordination, and better outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Worries about further rollout<\/p>\n After years of delays, the Nova Scotia government announced the contract with Oracle three years ago. The most recent plan was for the system to first launch with the IWK, before a rollout across Nova Scotia Health facilities, beginning with sites in the central zone in May.<\/p>\n Hazelton said the concerns about system performance and education for users must be addressed before a broader rollout can go ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m as concerned as the nurses are at the IWK about that.\u201d<\/p>\n The internal memos and Hazelton\u2019s comments follow a recent staff meeting at the IWK where people could share their views.<\/p>\n Magazine article pulled<\/p>\n The email from McNeil, the Doctors Nova Scotia president, calls for doctors to \u201clead collectively, support one another and hold each other accountable to ensure we get through this transition in a way that supports physicians and protects patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n It said Doctors Nova Scotia remains confident One Person One Record has the potential to strengthen health-care delivery in the province. “However, our belief in the long-term value of this work does not diminish the very real frustrations being experienced today.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, McNeil goes on to say that Doctors Nova Scotia intended to pull an article by the OPOR project team from the upcoming edition of the DNS magazine because it \u201cdid not reflect a balanced or accurate representation of physicians\u2019 experiences transitioning to OPOR.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe go-live experience was far more complex and challenging than the article suggested, and its tone did not align with recent conversations we have had with physicians at IWK Health,\u201d McNeil writes, adding that the organization was able to recall from Canada Post issues of the magazine that included the article.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be reprinting the magazine without that article.”<\/p>\n MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 6 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-451611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}