Early challenges will be worthwhile for new N.S. digital health records: officials

Intense training has been done at the IWK to prepare staff for last weekend’s launch. (CTV Atlantic/ Callum Smith)

This Saturday will mark one week since the IWK began using the new One Person One Record system, a digital system to record and view patient data.

The switch away from paper and photocopying has been years in the making, with Nova Scotia ultimately inking a 10-year contract – worth $365-million – in early 2023 with Oracle Health Canada to design, develop, implement and support the One Person One Record technology.

The significant shift has been taxing on staff in the early days.

“It’s a firestorm, according to some of the words I’ve been told,” says Sandra Mullen, the president of the NSGEU, representing approximately 1,700 members at the IWK. “They are just at a very breaking point.”

IWK Health acknowledges the new technology has been difficult to learn, but says patient care always comes first and recordkeeping is second.

“Have there been stresses? Yes. Have there been anxieties? Yes,” says Dr. Krista Jangaard, the president and CEO of IWK Health.

“Have there been celebrations when things are going along well? Yes. Are people knowing that this is where they want to go, even though it’s difficult? Yes.”

She says “having that best care connected across, people, across providers, across geographies” will make the short-term pain worthwhile.

“What we hear from patients is they move place to place, they have to tell their story all over again.”

And she says some healthcare providers have also given positive reviews in the early stages.

“We had a family physician call in on, I think our second day, who said my patient was seen in emergency today, and I have the report already. It’s two pages, it’s clear, I can read it, this is wonderful.”

So the repetitive storytelling will not be required, thanks to that provincial deal signed with Oracle Health Canada nearly three years ago.

“In the old days, we would have to print off pieces of the chart. We would have to photocopy them. We would tuck them under the patient’s feet when they were in the ambulance,” says Michelle Thompson, the province’s health minister.

That too, will change.

“If you have a critically ill child at IWK, that information is streaming right into the clinical record, which allows clinicians to be able in real time to monitor patient trends and those types of things.”

The central zone – which includes Halifax – is next with One Person One Record to be implemented in May, before launching province-wide by the end of 2026.

Thompson says there will be many benefits when the system is in full force.

“I think, overall, the communication will improve, the safety will improve, the efficiency – reducing redundancy in the system.”

The Nova Scotia government says 286 permanent employees, 108 temporary employees, 20 casuals and 23 students have been hired as part of the rollout.

The province says that security and privacy are “critically important” to the technology.

“The protection of patient data is paramount for building and maintaining trust, complying with legal obligations, and ensuring the overall integrity of our healthcare system,” reads a statement from the health department.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page