Ontario’s $2 billion boondoggle
The scandal over Ontario’s abortive efforts to move health records into the electronic age has taken another captive:
From the Globe and Mail Online
eHealth chairman resigns under a cloud
Hudson’s departure marks a fall from grace for McGuinty’s hand-picked choice to modernize Ontario’s health records
Karen Howlett and Lisa Priest
Toronto — The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2009 05:45PM EDT
Alan Hudson resigned on Wednesday as chairman of eHealth Ontario amid a controversy over lucrative contracts awarded without competitive tenders and nickel-and-dime spending on snacks by consultants, some of whom charged thousands of dollars a day for their services.
Dr. Hudson’s departure marks a fall from grace in what many saw as a stellar record. Known as the man who could fix anything in health care, he was Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s hand-picked choice to modernize the province’s medical records.
“Today I want to acknowledge that our government came up short in the matter of eHealth,” Mr. McGuinty said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We should have done more to protect the public.”
Dr. Hudson is the second executive to leave eHealth Ontario in recent days. Sarah Kramer, his protégé and long-time business associate – whom he often described as brilliant – was forced to resign as chief executive officer on June 6.
All well and good, say I, but I think one more resignation is due — that of the Ontario Minister of Health, David Caplan.
This whole situation is tragic. Tragic for the individuals involved, as they were both dedicated, competent individuals. But more tragic for the people of Ontario, because it means yet more delays in building an electronic health records system that would improve health care and cut costs.
For all their competence, Dr. Hudson and Ms. Kramer were incredibly stupid in one respect. Giving out millions of dollars in untendered contracts to consulting firms hired to build the system. The fact that principals of those firms were former colleagues of the two eHealth officials is beside the point. And no one disputes the competence of the consultants, either.
But you can’t go around handing out millions of dollars of public business without a competitive tendering process.
Premier McGuinty says he’s fixed that, and there’ll be no more of it.
Dr. Hudson, in a speech just a week ago on receiving an honorary degree from the University of Toronto, observed that the idea of electronic health records has been around for 45 years but “unbelievably slow to penetrate clinical health care in a systematic fashion.” Promising better, he remarked that Ontario has set $2.3 billion aside for the job.
So far, all we know is that about $700 million has been spent on eHealth’s predecessor agency, with zero results.
Premier McGuinty needs to be more systematic about how he’s dealing with the crisis. During David Caplan’s watch at the Ministry of Health, the eHealth ship has gone on the rocks. It’s time to cast him up on the beach.
