I hope you had a wonderful holiday and the effects of L-tryptophan have long since dissipated; so now you're ready for the Ontario Winter Games -- you know the ones where you compete to see who can get the longest slide on black ice without falling, who can throw snow the farthest clearing up after a storm, or who can clear the snow jammed into driveways by the plow, the fastest.
Winter's upon us, obviously, and I sure didn't miss the irony of the situation after I'd just purchased fuel in -25 degree wind-chill weather and my favorite singer Dee Dee Bridgewater begins singing the song "Cherokee" with opening lyrics of "Dreams of summertime..."
Anyway, apologies to those readers living outside the boundaries of the Central East LHIN (CE LHIN) -- the posts for January and February may not be as generalized as previous articles; I'd like to suggest however, that what's discussed is by no means unique.
I received a "December-update" alert from the CE LHIN concerning current e-Health projects and the following items really piqued my interest:
- the Hospital Information System (HIS) being terminated due to a lack of resources -- this project appears to pertain to CE LHIN data consolidation standards; I presume this means the end of the project, since it's obviously inappropriate to continue the next phase if the previous one is incomplete
- a business case to consolidate 33 hospital data-centers will be presented to the various CEOs at an all-day session in our region -- I also presume the CE LHIN is spearheading this
- the CE LHIN is joining forces with 5 other LHINs to develop a Patient Health Information (PHI) system that will enable data sharing
- we're also involved in a Resource Matching and Referrals (RM&R) project with 7 other LHINs whereby information will be shared between the various "Care" centers
Things have gotten to the stage that the LHIN is sending in a peer review team to fix the situation!
To me, the above begs the question: Why are we involved in so many projects with non-CE LHIN participants (and terminating internal ones) when our infrastructure is tumbling, or about to?
I'm suggesting the CE LHIN, at a minimum, consider the following options:
- all projects involving other LHINs be mothballed -- let's hunker down and get our house in order -- let the shoemaker have a chance to re-sole his shoe, so to speak
- get our LHIN's hospitals' data-centers consolidated within the region and change the way we pay for and use software; this will not only save huge amounts of money on the licensing front, but will also facilitate information sharing (think EMRs/EHRs) -- the current lack of which I feel is a big contributor to the ongoing deficits
At this point, I'd like to hold the discussion until next time when I'll get into more details.
Think the above is a tad unworkable? Well, let's get your ideas/comments posted -- we're gonna need all hands on deck; the next couple of years will no doubt be painful since budget cuts (which inevitably translate to service reductions) will be an ongoing reality, but if we do things right we could come out of this with a much more efficient operating model that can be proudly shared with other LHINs.
Wishing us all a safe, healthy, challenging but productive year ahead.
Ernest A. James
President/CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.
