New probe ordered into IHealth electronic records system

Health Minister Adrian Dix is ordering a second independent review of a controversial electronic health records system that created a stalemate between Island Health and the doctors refusing to use it. The $174-million paperless IHealth system was launched in March 2016 at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, Dufferin Place residential care […]

Read more

Can internal medicine coverage crisis be averted in Nanaimo?

Nanaimo – Internists here who, for ethical (“Do no harm”) and safety reasons, refuse the computerized order entry system (CPOE) their 247-bed Nanaimo Regional General Hospital has been piloting for months, have called an emergency meeting of their medical staff association (MSA). It is scheduled for May 31. Dr. Dave […]

Read more

Use IHealth software, not paper, defiant Nanaimo doctors told.

Island Health says it will no longer accommodate Nanaimo doctors who are refusing to use an electronic system for ordering medication — a system the doctors say puts patients at risk. Nine internal medicine doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital stopped using the $174-million electronic health records system at the […]

Read more

Doctors are right to say no to IHealth

Re: “Doctors defy IHealth, dump software,” April 28. I support Nanaimo doctors who refuse to let cumbersome software interfere with caring for patients. It is unfortunate that administration places compliance and documentation above actually caring for patients. How much of a nurse’s time is spent on electronic charting now, versus […]

Read more

Editorial: IHealth project badly handled

The simmering controversy over the new patient-record system at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital has boiled over. Some physicians have abandoned the system, and gone back to using paper records for ordering medications and lab work. They say the software is clumsy, slow and plagued by glitches. As a result, one […]

Read more

Nanaimo doctors defy IHealth, dump software; MD suspended

Some doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are abandoning an Island Health computer system in defiance of the health authority. The doctors say the IHealth system could cause dangerous drug dosage errors. They reverted to ordering medicine and lab work using pens and paper on Thursday, after using the IHealth […]

Read more

B.C. health-care workers slam decision to reverse IHealth suspension

The Vancouver Island Health Authority has reversed a decision to suspend part of its $174-million IHealth electronic records system, despite concerns among some medical staff that problems – including potentially dangerous dosing errors – have not been fully addressed. “We still feel strongly that the system needs to be suspended […]

Read more

A lesson from Nanaimo on the human costs of electronic health records

For the last 12 months, staff at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in B.C. have been using a Cerner-based electronic health record (EHR). This includes computer physician order entry, linked to computerized order management, and fully electronic documentation. Since shortly after the system was activated, physicians have consistently and increasingly expressed […]

Read more