100 patient referrals delayed due to technical errors with electronic records system, Health P.E.I. says

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.