PACP Committee News Release
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Standing Committee on Public Accounts |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent des comptes publics |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
Canada slow to implement Electronic Health Records
Ottawa, December 08, 2010 -
Despite accomplishments made by Canada Health Infoway since its inception, the corporation needs to do more to advance the use of electronic health and medical records by health care professionals, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented to the House of Commons today.
In 2000, Canadian first ministers committed to developing electronic health records (EHRs) - secure and private electronic records of a person’s health history and care that are available to authorized health care providers. In 2001, the federal government created Canada Health Infoway Inc. and provided it $1.6 billion to make investments on the development on EHRs across the country.
In November 2009, the Office of the Auditor General released an audit on Infoway. The audit found that, overall, Infoway exercised due regard in managing funds from the federal government to achieve its goal related to the development of EHRs. However, as significant public funds have been spent on developing EHRs, it is important that EHRs systems are not just “built” but are “used”.
Few Canadian physicians use electronic medical records (EMRs) - only 37% in 2009. While Infoway received $500 million to invest in EMRs, the Committee is concerned that Infoway has not outlined a plan or business targets for implementing these records. Also, as 9,000 to 23,000 Canadians may die each year from preventable adverse drug reactions, the Committee believes that Health Canada needs to reach agreements with provinces to allow it to collect information from their drug information systems.
The audit also noted that Infoway could improve its contracting policy, clarify how it reports results, and recommended that Infoway improve its reporting of EHRs usage. The Committee recommends that Infoway improve its reporting on the extent to which EHRs are used by health care professionals.
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