100 patient referrals delayed due to technical errors with electronic records system, Health P.E.I. says
CBC
Officials with Health P.E.I. say a hundred medical referrals have been delayed because of technical problems with the province's new electronic medical record system.
This includes referrals that were sent to a physician's account that wasn't even active in the system — yet somehow, the physician's account has been receiving emails and referrals since July 2022.
In a statement, Health P.E.I. said a total of 70 referrals were sent to the physician and delayed, including at least eight who "have been deemed needing an urgent appointment."
Those patients are being contacted by phone this week and will be given appointments as soon as possible. The remaining patients whose referrals have been delayed in this process will be getting letters from Health P.E.I. with more information next week, the statement said.
A spokesperson with Health P.E.I. said this incident has been reviewed, and steps have been taken to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Health P.E.I. and Department of Health officials said the error was found during a recent review specifically done to look at the patient referral process under the EMR system.
The system allows physicians to share information such as diagnostic images, prescription history and other clinician notes with other health professionals.
Through that review, 1,700 patient referrals were audited after showing they had been submitted incorrectly in the system. Of those, 100 referrals were delayed because of those errors.
The review was done following an incident last November, when Health P.E.I. alerted the public that about 700 patient referrals for obstetrics and gynecology appointments were delayed because of technical errors with the EMR system.
"We started looking back into the primary care providers, the family doctors and nurse practitioners because we're the ones that send those to the consultants," said Dr. Kristy Newson, physician advisor for the pilot project.
"We want to be sure that the referrals that people were sending through the EMR are actually sent to the consultants."
Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker raised concerns about the EMR system in the legislature on Friday.
He said the current system isn't working and has garnered complaints for the physicians who use it — something he worries will impact the province's ability to retain doctors and attract more to come here.
"At a time when technology presumably allows us to be more communicative than we ever have been, it's quite astonishing to me that the province has been shouldered with a system that is so inefficient, so ineffective and creates a bunch of problems," Bevan-Baker said.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.