VICTORIA, B.C. - It prompted a cabinet resignation in Ontario and is linked to an on-going RCMP investigation in British Columbia, and on Tuesday federal auditor general Sheila Fraser weighs in on Ottawa's management of the electronic health program.
Fraser is set to table her report on the federal government's handling of its $2.1 billion e-health program through the not-for-profit taxpayer funded Canada Health Infoway.
E-health revolves around efforts to integrate information and communication technologies into the health sector, but the transition, successful in most other business and government realms, appears to be anything but smooth when it comes to the health bureaucracy.
Health Canada says the fundamental building block of e-health is the development of electronic health records which are designed to allow sharing of information between health-care providers across medical disciplines and institutions.
Auditors general across Canada are also working on audits of their own provincial e-health initiatives.
The Alberta and Ontario audits are complete, with Ontario's resulting in the resignation in October of former health minister David Caplan and an on-going scandal that dogs Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government.
Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter reported on Oct. 7 Ontario's e-health initiative lacked direction, relied too heavily on consultants and "Ontario taxpayers have not received value for money for this $1 billion investment."
British Columbia has eight e-health projects, including giving doctors electronic access to patient records, providing lab access online and using videoconferencing to put patients in touch with health professionals across distances.
B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon said the allegations in B.C. are deeply concerning, but they do not compare to what Ontario is facing.
"Does it mean we have a perfect system? I rather doubt it, but I can tell you I have a strong sense of confidence that we are fortunately no where like the situation they are experiencing in Ontario," he said.
But Jody Bevan, the founder of an Edmonton-based medical software company, Jonoke Software, that sells its electronic medical records products across Canada said he saw inexperienced consultants working in Ontario.
"It's like a big trough of money and the consultants have seen this and have descended on it," said Bevan, who was attending a health industry conference in Los Angeles.
But Bevan has also filed complaints about the B.C. bidding process.
B.C. auditor general John Doyle is examining e-health in British Columbia where the Opposition New Democrats have been raising allegations of conflict of interest and tainted bids for two years.
The province's former top e-health bureaucrat and the former assistant deputy minister of health, Ron Danderfer, is the subject of an on-going RCMP investigation that includes allegations of breach of trust and fraud.
Victoria lawyer John Waddell, appointed special prosecutor by the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General in the Danderfer investigation, said recently he expects to announce before Christmas whether criminal charges will be laid in the matter.
Danderfer was British Columbia's chief e-health architect until late 2007 when he abruptly retired from government after 35 years as a civil servant.
He was a member of Canada Health Infoway's board of directors and served on steering committees for some B.C. e-health projects.
Opposition New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix said he's been calling for B.C.'s auditor general to review the government's e-health initiative for at least two years.
Dix said Danderfer appeared to be controlling e-health in British Columbia without the benefit of oversight from others in government.
"He was running e-health for the government," said Dix. "It's explicit. He was on all the committees. He set the criteria. He set the plan. He wrote the plan. He oversaw the plan."
In a search warrant executed last February but only recently made public, RCMP allege that Danderfer committed breach of trust with a man who was his main consultant on e-health, and whose company was hired to provide distance diagnosis technology.
No charges have been laid in the case and the allegations contained in the 99-page search warrant have not been proven in court.
Danderfer, Burns and Taylor could not be reached for comment, and the RCMP investigation is ongoing.
