Health system to begin massive IT restructuring

Saskatchewan’s health system is set to begin a complete overhaul of its information infrastructure, a move leaders hope will help bring the province’s health systems into lockstep.

The Administrative Information Management System, or AIMS, will gradually replace the 82 payroll, financial and human resources systems used by the Saskatchewan Health Authority and other health care organizations in the province.

Mark Anderson, a member of the executive steering committee of the project, said it will replace “out of date” software and integrate the province’s health systems under one umbrella.

“The aim here is to really replace those systems, because they’re out of date and they need replacement ... but also to try to bring them into better integration so they talk to one another,” said Anderson, who is also the CEO of 3shealth, a non-government agency that provides services to various health care organizations in the province.

The task is forecasted to cost $166.5 million over the next 10 years. SHA vice president of finance and CFO Robbie Pletch said phasing out existing systems could save as much as $10 million each year.

Pletch and Anderson said the change was a long time coming. Executives have been discussing a single system since before the health authority existed, but action was delayed — sometimes by logistics, then by uncertainty around the time the authority was created.

The aim here is to really replace those systems, because they’re out of date and they need replacement.

“This has been happening in the system for probably 10 years,” Pletch said.

A vendor was selected in 2016 but couldn’t begin work without ministry approval, which was received in July 2018. Anderson said major systems will be deployed in May, though he warned that fragments of the existing systems will likely persist.

“It’s sort of perpetually going to be improving over time,” he said.

Anderson said the benefit of a single system could potentially be immense. For example, it could allow different parts of the province to triage supplies of a drug when there’s a shortage or a back order, as occurred earlier this month when the Saskatoon area ran out of take-home naloxone kits. It could also allow the province to more easily purchase and stockpile supplies in bulk.

“If we want to stockpile products ... if there’s a pandemic planning situation or something, you can plan that provincially instead of each of these areas having to do that,” Anderson said.

He noted there are risks associated with the magnitude of the incoming changes and cautioned the partners will have to proceed incrementally, and only after each system is carefully tested for bugs.

“I think I have sort of a healthy dose of fear and anxiety of that (a problem), combined with optimism and excitement for what this is going to deliver for us.”