The Legault government will not be able to keep its promise to end the use of faxes in the health network in 2023, and does not even want to move forward on a horizon for the disappearance of paper.
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Worse still, the telemedicine implemented in an emergency at the start of COVID-19 exploded the number of prescriptions sent by fax in pharmacies.
However, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire, had promised the end of the fax this year when announcing his digital strategy in 2019.
A promise that has been repeated many times. Even the Prime Minister had judged the use of the fax as “archaic”.
“Technological modernization is a colossal task taking into account that it targets more than 10,000 technological systems”, indicates the director of communications of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Noémie Vanheuverzwijn.
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Eric Cairo
The Ministry of Health blames the pandemic in particular for the delay in computerization.
“The use of the fax will gradually decrease, we cannot effectively specify a timetable at this time”, specifies one to the ministry.
900 devices in a CIUSSS
The fax is still very present in the establishments where it is still used to send requests for examinations, transfer patient files between hospitals or even analysis results.
➡ Examples of fax usage:
- Prescriptions faxed to hospital pharmacy;
- Request for consultation (specialist doctors, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, nutritionist, etc.);
- Requests for examinations;
- Transfers of inter-hospital records;
- Drug lists to pharmacies;
- Request to a private partner for home care services or accommodation in a CHSLD.
At the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal alone, there are more than 900 multifunction printers that can send and receive faxes.
“The majority of mailings are for communications between the CIUSSS and external entities,” says senior media relations advisor Jean-Nicolas Aubé.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, is aware of the problem.
“There are still faxes, it’s true and that’s what we’re attacking. It is an important, but necessary culture change,” the firm said in a written statement.
The Minister’s office also believes that Bill 5 passed in March, which allows access to data, will be useful in eliminating faxes.
For Alexandre Allard of the Association of Health Information Managers of Quebec (AGISQ), nothing will change without real political and medical will.
“Currently, there is more than 80% of the information which is paper, necessarily it takes humans and paper reflexes”, supports the president of the association which represents medical archivists.
$20 billion
He indicates that in some establishments, the staff communicates by fax between the different floors. For many, it is easier to use fax than e-mail since the numbers are already pre-programmed.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY Alexandre Allard
Alexandre Allard
According to him, it would take an investment of $2 billion per year for ten years to set up one of the most efficient computer systems in the world, a far cry from the $700 million initially planned by the government.
Two CIUSSS, in the north of Montreal and in Mauricie, have been designated for the implementation of a pilot project for the Digital Health Record (DSN), but it will take another few years for this to be rolled out across the network.
what they said
“Faxes must disappear from the Quebec government’s radar screen.”
–Eric Cairo in 2019
“Listen, my two guys don’t even know what a fax is, so just to tell you how archaic it is.”
–Francois Legault, June 2020
“The government has also committed to ending the use of faxes in the health network by 2023.”
–Marie-Hélène Émond, Department of Health and Social Services, March 2021