A plan to automate doctor office patient records in New Brunswick failed to in its intended outcomes, that according to the Auditor General.
In July of 2012, the Department of Health contracted the delivery of the Electronic Medical Record program to the New Brunswick Medical Society. NBMS partnered with the consulting firm Accreon and formed a private company by the name of Velante Inc. to undertake implementation and operation of a single-vendor EMR program. The complex delivery structure was not in the best interest of New Brunswickers and weakened the department’s governance and oversight of the program.
The program was intended to automate doctor office patient records, but Kim Adair-MacPherson says “New Brunswick has one of the lowest adoption rates in the country, “New Brunswick’s adoption rate is 34 per cent, whereas some provinces are, BC for example is 91 per cent, Alberta 78, Saskatchewan and Manitoba 70 per cent and Ontario 75 per cent. New Brunswick is definitely on the low side.”
She adds, that after eight years, and $26 million, less than half of the 800 eligible physicians adopted the electronic medical records system,
She felt the department failed to intervene in 2015 when there were clear signs the program was in jeopardy. Instead, they extended deadlines and provided more funding for four more years.
Adair-MacPherson feels if the weaknesses are not addressed, “New Brunswickers will not have an integrated real-time health information system, ‘Healthcare practitioners may not have the necessary information to provide optimal services and the department is unlikely to realize value for money in technology.”
