Health authority paying ‘shadow’ doctors during Nanaimo EMR dispute
Nanaimo, B.C. – Island Health has paid an will continue to pay “shadow” doctors $1,850 a day to cover MD shifts at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital after the doctors there refused to work on a electronic health record that they say puts patients at risk.
The Time Colonist obtained a May 4 letter in which the health authority appealed to doctors on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, offering the fee plus accommodation and meal allowances.
This letter is to appeal to you for urgent coverage.
“A cadre of General Internal Medicine physicians in Nanaimo has declared an intention not to use the (order-entry) component of the electronic health record, in contravention of Island Health policy,” it said in the letter, according to the Times Colonist.
“This letter is to appeal to you for urgent coverage.”
In addition to the shadow-role fee, doctors who took up the offer were also paid standard fee-for-services rates. The Times Colonist reported that the health authority had paid out a total of over $57,000 for 31 days of coverage, plus about $3,800 in travel, accommodation and meal costs.
The controversial IHealth system launched in March of 2016 and will cost a total of $174 million. Some doctors claimed that the order entry component caused dangerous dosage errors, leading some to revert to using handwritten orders for medication and lab tests.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has ordered an independent firm to review the status of IHealth and make recommendations in the fall, the Times Colonist reported. The rollout has already been significantly more costly than anticipated and the projected rollout completion date has been extended to 2020.
Until that review is completed however, IHealth will remain in use and Island Health said they will continue to recruit doctors as needed.
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