Old computers hamper coroners
A VANCOUVER SUN EXCLUSIVE
B. C. Coroners Service computers are so old they cannot perfo r m t h e d a t a - c r u n c h i n g required to identify trends in child death reviews, a task taken over by the agency since the abolition of the Children’s Commission.
“ The technology issue has been a thorn in our side for far too long,” Chief Coroner Terry Smith told The Vancouver Sun Wednesday.
He hopes new software will be operating by the end of January 2006, but until then patterns in child deaths will continue to be tracked manually.
“We’re doing all of this manually now... in terms of sorting through trends and stuff. The old [software] does some of it for us, but it was built in 1986,” he said.
“It certainly doesn’t allow us to track trends in the way I envision it happening.”
The need to update coroner computers was identified in an internal BCCS memo obtained by The Sun, entitled 2003/ 2004 Goals, which says the agency’s database is “outdated and not capable of providing the functionality we currently require.”
“We have been assigned responsibility for conducting pediatric death reviews previously conducted by the former Children’s Commission. This responsibility will require that we be capable of data warehousing and data mining in support of detailed research and analysis of statistics and anecdotal evidence,” the memo says.
Since taking over responsibility from the Children’s Commission in 2002 to do secondary reviews on child deaths, the BCCS has been criticized for making few reports public. Smith plans to release a report in early 2006 that analyzes all child deaths from 2003 to 2005, and says a new software system would make it easier to finish.
The BCCS has also been criticized after revelations that secondary reviews were not done in 713 child deaths that were not completed before the Children’s Commission was cut by the provincial Liberal government. But Smith said his ancient computers were not to blame for that delay because no one in government ever told the BCCS the 713 files existed.
The memo makes several references to the pressures the BCCS felt to cut costs. The province slashed its budget by 15 per cent and only gave it an extra $200,000 to take over the work of the Children’s Commission.
In the interview, Smith did not blame government cuts for the delay in getting the computers updated. He said the improvements have been in the works for three years and that they take time to complete.
In addition, the memo calls for the BCCS to get a new case management system because, in late 2002, it had 1,000 primary investigations into the deaths of people of all ages that were “ overdue” — more than 18 weeks old.
The memo also suggests managers couldn’t track the status of those overdue reports.
“ In short, there was simply no means of accounting for the steps which had already been completed or the lack of progress within any case,” the memo says, adding the BCCS planned to implement a new case management system during the 2003/ 2004 fiscal year.
But Smith said it will not be implemented until the new software is in place, likely in January.
He said coroners will then be able to better manage caseloads, and he has issued a directive that 85 per cent of death investigations be finished within 4.5 months. Smith acknowledged that goal hasn’t been met yet and wouldn’t say how many investigations are currently overdue.
“We’re working very hard at trying to ensure that we complete files more quickly,” he said.
“We’ve improved from where we were, but we’ve got a ways to go yet. Once we get [ the new software] in place, I’m sure that will improve again.”
NDP MLA Adrian Dix, a critic of the Liberals’ child welfare system, said he understands the BCCS still has a backlog of 600 to 700 overdue investigations.
lculbert@png.canwest.com