CBC report

Canada’s efforts to digitize the health-care system have been underway for more than a decade, but progress has been slow.

For all the high-tech equipment found in a modern Canadian hospital, there is still an astounding amount of paper: large, clumsy binders hold patients’ medical charts, nurses record vital signs on scraps of paper and doctors issue orders in often illegible scrawl.

The country lags far behind many other jurisdictions such as Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden, which have been using electronic health records for several years.

One way of assessing how “digital” a hospital is is through a scale developed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). It ranks hospitals’ progress in adopting an integrated electronic records system that includes patient records, laboratory and medical imaging systems, and technologies that help doctors and nurses manage and deliver care.

Only four Canadian hospitals have achieved Stage 6 on the HIMSS scale as of the end of 2012. None were at Stage 7, the highest category, while 104 were in the U.S.

The four Stage 6 hospitals in Canada include –  the South Okanagan General Hospital at Oliver BC