EHealth Ontario

eHealth Ontario is the agency tasked with facilitating the development of Ontario's proposed public Electronic Health Record system. Health Informatics in Canada is run provincially, with different provinces creating different systems, albeit sometimes under voluntary Pan-Canadian guidelines published by the federal body Canada Health Infoway. eHealth Ontario was created in September 2008 out of a merger between the Ontario Ministry of Health's electronic health program and the Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA), with a mandate to create electronic health records for all patients in the province by 2015. It has been plagued by delays and its CEO was fired over a multimillion-dollar contracts scandal in 2009. Today eHealth employs approximately 700 people.

The Drug Profile Viewer System tracks the prescription drug claims information of 2.5 million Ontario Drug Benefit Program and Trillium Drug Program recipients. This system is in use in hospitals throughout Ontario and access is being expanded to health care providers outside of the hospital setting.

eHealth Ontario created a pilot project through which some doctors are now able to electronically send prescriptions to participating local pharmacies instead of having to manually write down the prescriptions on paper. That pilot project is ongoing.

In May 2009, there were opposition calls for Ontario Health Minister David Caplan's resignation after it was revealed that eHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer had approved about $4.8 million in no-bid contracts during the first four months of the agency's operation, while also spending $50,000 to refurnish her office, and paying consultants up to $300 an hour. One consultant earned about $192,000 in five months. Additionally, nine senior eHealth employees had been fired in a four-month period, some reportedly for challenging the agency's tendering practices.

Kramer was later forced to resign in June 2009, amid questions surrounding a $114,000 bonus paid to her. She received a $317,000 severance package with benefits for 10 months.

eHealth Ontario argued that the no-bid contracts were necessary due to the rapid transition process to eHealth from its predecessor Smart Systems for Health Agency, while Caplan defended Kramer's bonus as part of her move from another agency. The opposition argued that the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty spent five years and $647 million on the forerunner of eHealth Ontario: the Smart Systems for Health Agency, which used 15 per cent of its $225-million annual budget on consultants despite employing 166 people with annual salaries exceeding $100,000, before the project was shut down and restarted as eHealth Ontario.

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Wikipedia