Budget Bulletin: The Right Tools to Make the Right

FINANCE--Budget Bulletin: The Right Tools to Make the Right Decisions

The Right Tools to Make the Right Decisions

• Three-year plan to implement health and education information management systems.
• $9 million committed in 2001-02 to Health information management system.
• $4 million for education information management system.

A major investment is being made to ensure Nova Scotia’s health and education systems have the information technology tools needed for evidence-based quality planning and long-term decision making.

The Department of Health will invest $9 million as a first step in purchasing information hardware and software that are needed in the Nova Scotia health care system. Implementing the system will take three years.

The new health information management strategy will standardize hospital information provincially in such areas as patient administration, laboratory, pharmacy, diagnostic imaging and order management. This is a tangible step towards the department’s goal of a more efficient and accountable health system that will have the long-term result of improving clinical care.

Electronic health records will begin to replace paper records, making it easier and faster to update patient information and for clinicians and hospitals to access the information they need. A new information management system will also help hospitals learn more about how many patients they are seeing for what services at what time of the day and give a correct read of wait times, information they need to provide for efficient planning.

The government will invest $4 million from its 2000-01 budget in an information management system to help improve the efficiency of school board operations and overall accountability in the system. The system will accommodate the collection of a wide range of public school-related data in order to make the right decisions based on the right information.

NOTE: For other 2001-02 budget information, visit the Department of Finance Web site at www.gov.ns.ca/finance .