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NUNAVUT
After being in use for six months in Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay, those who use the electronic health record system are giving it mostly positive feedback, but there are still kinks needing to be worked out and more time is needed for staff to adapt.

"We're changing the way we do business and that's what we have to catch up to," said Robert Nevin, nurse practitioner and manager of the family practice clinic with the Department of Health and Social Services in Iqaluit.

The Nunavut Interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) Project was launched on Feb. 7 in all healthcare facilities in Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay.

The territory started working on the project in 2008 with most of the funding coming from the federal government through Canada Health Infoway, an independent not-for-profit corporation designed to help implement EHRs across the country.

Anyone who has gone to a health facility since the beginning of February has been asked for their health card number, basic patient information including the name of their next of kin and their contact information.

Healthcare providers can order tests, put in referrals and look at lab results, X-ray reports and ultrasounds.

"In some cases, it has reduced the wait time from

three to five weeks to 48 hours," said Martin Joy, director of health information with HSS.

Presently this is being done for folks living in the eastern Arctic and in the Baffin region.

Nevin, who has been working in Nunavut for the last 25 years on and off, said many health centres only acquired computers in 1998.

"I used the same information-gathering tool in 1998 as I did my last day in a health centre in 2005 and it's still out there now as the main information tool in health centres," he said of the old record system.

Right now, the EHR system is only available for use in English and roughly 250 providers and frontline workers have been trained to

use it.

Another practical application is now staff can see patient volume at an emergency room with a click of button or tell you how many Nunavummiut have diabetes if requested.

Nevin said having this information and statistics readily available is useful.

"Whether or not we make health care decisions based on evidence, I'm not sure we always do, but our evidence-collecting tools have always been rural."

In October, when Information and Privacy Commissioner Elaine Keenan Bengts spoke at the legislative assembly, she said there were no laws in place to protect patient information.

Joy said the department has put together 11 directives to mandate the use of and protect individuals' personal information.

These have yet to be released and have to be approved by HSS and the Department of Justice. He said he hopes this will be done over the summer.

Under the system, personal information will be kept for 20 years before it is destroyed, which is a Government of Nunavut policy.

The next community to get on board with the system is Rankin Inlet.

Once this is done, up to 13,000 people or 40 per cent of people in the territory will be using the system. This means 50 to 75 additional staff as well.

Nevin said all cannot be perfect and staff and other Nunavummiut have to be patient.

"I know there are some people who are less enamoured with the system and who are struggling but for me its part of the learning process."

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