REGINA - The province has had to pause a new information technology system handing the scheduling and payroll system in the Saskatchewan Health Authority due to numerous bugs and issues being encountered.
Health Minister Paul Merriman confirmed Monday that the AIMS system — Administrative Information Management System — was paused after a week of use, over concerns about scheduling and payment.
The AIMS system was supposed to replace and integrate the multiple legacy IT systems that had been in place in the various health regions prior to creation of the Saskatchewan Health Authority. There were 80 such systems from all of the old health regions, and Merriman said some of the systems were 50 years old.
But there were multiple issues encountered with the scheduling and payroll, with worries expressed by health care personnel they would not be paid on time.
Merriman confirmed SHA had directed the AIMS executive leadership team to pause it, according to his remarks in Question Period according to Hansard.
“That’s exactly why we paused it because we wanted to make sure the integrity of the payroll and the scheduling was done. Mr. Speaker, I can guarantee that the people that are in the health care system will receive their cheques. We have reverted back to our legacy system, which has been in place for years, so we will continue to make sure that those payments are done to our health care workers, Mr. Speaker.
“As you can imagine, combining over 80 systems with union agreements, Mr. Speaker . . . And some of these systems are over 50 years old, Mr. Speaker. We do have to upgrade some of these legacy systems. When AIMS is ready to be . . . that it is in a position where the scheduling and the payroll is in a safe place and SHA is recommending that to me, we will resume it. Until that time we’ll pause it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”
Opposition MLA for Saskatoon Fairview Vicki Mowat pointed to the chaos that had ensued.
“The minister acts like this was a surprise, but people have known for a very long time that this rollout would be a disaster, Mr. Speaker. Shifts are being filled on Facebook. It is absurd. And the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses has already filed a grievance based on errors in scheduling, leave requests, and hours worked. AIMS was paused a week after it went live, Mr. Speaker.”
“Again I’ll advise the House that there are over 80 systems,” Merriman responded. “This is combining all of the old health regions’ technology, which all had independent systems. When the SHA was formed years ago, this was part of that system integration, to be able to bring all of those into one system, Mr. Speaker.
“There were some challenges. We identified that. That’s why the SHA paused it immediately to make sure that the payroll system would go, Mr. Speaker, that the scheduling would go, and that our procurement would go on time. That’s exactly why we did it. We had contingency plans built into place if there were any challenges. We enacted those contingency plans as soon as there was problems.”
In speaking to reporters Merriman said they have reverted back to their legacy systems, but they do want to relaunch AIMS at some point.
“I’m confident we’ll get AIMS working,” said Merriman. However, he could not give a precise timeline on how long it will take before the issues are figured out.
At some point in time, he said, “we will make sure that it is running properly and continue to make sure people are paid and people are scheduled, because we want to make sure that patient safety is utmost importance to us.”
In speaking to reporters Opposition Critic Mowat said they had heard “concerns for years about what this rollout would actually look like.”
“I don’t understand how the health minister is surprised that there have been significant errors in the system so far,” said Mowat, who added “we need answers on how much this cost, and what this government is planning to do to fix it, and where the problems exist.”
