Evidence of meeting #29 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infoway.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
I'm sure Saskatchewan has EMR systems. EMRs are deployed individually in physicians' offices. Maybe not all physicians are using EMRs in Saskatchewan, but I'm pretty sure that many are.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
Okay. Let me reword the question.
You knew that Alberta was going to Connect Care—not Bill S-5's “Connected Care” that some people refer to. You knew that Alberta had invested $1 billion. What did you feel the uptake was going to be in competing with a system like Connect Care, which Alberta had?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
I don't think this is a question of competing with a system like Connect Care.
Conservative
Burton Bailey Conservative Red Deer, AB
Why would you go into Alberta and think that you were going to get them to use a system for prescriptions, knowing that they had a system that was working very well for them?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
We did not “go into Alberta”, as you say.
Canada Health Infoway had a mandate to look at a national e-prescribing service. As I said, all the provinces and territories are members of the corporation and make decisions related to Infoway and its programs and the strategic directions of those organizations, through the conference of deputy ministers. Alberta was very well aware of what Canada Health Infoway was undertaking.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Thank you.
I have a few questions.
There was $298 million spent on PrescribeIT, and now we're transitioning into another system, another program. That $298 million was spent in eight years. Is it going to be another $298 million in the next eight years spent by taxpayers, by Canadians?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
No.
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
No.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Okay. Why not? Why do you think it'll be a better deal in the next eight years than it was in the last eight years? If things go the way they did, how do you know that you're not going to need to spend $298 million?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Well, Canada Health Infoway is transitioning to a standards-based system in the sense that they're coming up with interoperability standards that vendors will then use to ensure those systems can talk to each other. Provinces and territories can make the decisions about which e-prescribing service they want to use, and this will be integrated into their own EMRs—
Conservative
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Not necessarily.
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
No. If I may, the goal is to introduce standards so that there can be a variety of IT solutions for e-prescribing that the provinces and territories and health organizations can choose.
The benefit is that if you have a common standard that all the provinces and territories are following, it reduces the cost for vendors and for the provinces and territories to have to customize the solutions according to the unique requirements. It should—
Conservative
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
—be more cost-effective in the long term.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Okay. Each province is going to decide what they want to do separately.
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
They get flexibility, but with an alignment to a common standard so the solutions can talk to each other. That's the goal.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Given all you've said today about this eight-year failure of PrescribeIT, why should Canadians trust anything else that comes forward? Why should Canadians trust a new system that you'll be bringing forward?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Taxpayers supported the establishment of a service that was provided for them over the last 10 years, and while the adoption rate didn't meet the scale we were envisioning, what you see is stewardship. We saw that the adoption rate was not what it had to be and that it was not going to be self-sustaining, so the federal government made a funding decision on Canada Health Infoway and pivoted. That's stewardship.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
It pivoted after $298 million. That's not really a pivot to me.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
There was a service for 10 years.
Conservative
Helena Konanz Conservative Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
It was for an uptake of 5% maximum. Would your goal be successful with a 10% or 20% uptake? What's your goal?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
The goal was for the system to be self-sustaining with adoption rates. It was clear that it was not going to reach the goal. As a good steward would, we did the analysis and changed course. Over that time, though, it provided millions of prescriptions; it provided a service to Canadians.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you. The time is up.
I now go to Ms. Sidhu for the Liberals. You have five minutes, Sonia.