Rollout of electronic medical records system delayed until December

Michael Gorman · CBC News

· Posted: May 11, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The rollout of a caller $365-million physics aesculapian records strategy for Nova Scotia is being pushed backmost until December.

In a memo to unit earlier this month, Dr. Nicole Boutilier, enforcement vice-president of medicine for Nova Scotia Health, said officials person been re-evaluating the presumption of the objective accusation system.

"This is not uncommon erstwhile gathering a strategy arsenic important arsenic the [One Person One Record system]," she writes, adding that the plan and physique of the caller aesculapian records strategy volition beryllium completed this summer.

One Person One Record, oregon OPOR, volition let health-care professionals anyplace successful the state to spot what's happening successful existent clip with a diligent who's entered the acute attraction system.

In a enactment from January, Boutilier said the strategy was connected way to spell unrecorded astatine the IWK Health Centre at the extremity of August, with a 2nd question astatine 5 further hospital sites to travel successful November.

The Halifax Examiner archetypal reported connected the delay.

Officials person not provided an explicit mentation for the delay. Interview requests for officials with the IWK and the Health Department were declined.

New rollout date is Dec. 6

In her memo this month, Boutilier writes that the archetypal tract to usage the caller strategy volition beryllium the IWK, and it is present scheduled to statesman connected Dec. 6.

When Health Minister Michelle Thompson archetypal announced the woody successful February 2023 with Oracle Cerner Canada, a part of U.S.-based tech elephantine Oracle Corp., the anticipation was that OPOR would statesman a staged rollout wrong 2 years.

The determination to hold means further impacts to motorboat dates, arsenic the 2nd question was expected to statesman Nov. 22. Officials are inactive determining the program for Nova Scotia Health sites and zones arsenic a effect of the determination to propulsion backmost the commencement of the archetypal wave.

When it's complete, One Person One Record volition regenerate oregon link much than 80 systems that health-care professionals usage to presumption and grounds diligent information. The occupation has been that galore of those systems bash not oregon cannot pass with each other.

Important to get it right

A Health Department spokesperson said that health-care professionals indispensable usage an mean of 5 systems to summation a afloat representation of a patient's wellness information.

The spokesperson said the fund for the task remains unchanged. The state has yet to uncover details astir operating costs.

In a statement, an IWK spokesperson said "great advancement has been made" but the start date was adjusted to let for much grooming and mentation time.

The president-elect of Doctors Nova Scotia said delays successful a task of this scope are not unexpected.

"Implementing a modern hospital-based objective accusation strategy is simply a ample undertaking and volition beryllium foundational to improved diligent care," Dr. Shelly McNeil said successful a statement.

"We cognize that everyone is moving hard to instrumentality OPOR and portion we would similar to spot the timelines met, it's vitally important that OPOR is implemented well."