By Mario deSantis, June 11, 1999

Beginning in 1992, the Department of Health concluded that the Wellness Model of health care being implemented in Saskatchewan needed new information systems. In 1995, the blueprint of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) was completed and its development was being based on stringent computing standards, and proven, progressive, low risk technologies.

SHIN includes the development of individual electronic health records and its most important technological features are the linking of all the health care providers through e-mail, and the use of the technologies of Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN). The economic integrity of the implementation of SHIN was supported by a Benefit Analysis conducted by Ernst & Young which identified savings in the order of $58 Million to $114 Million annually.

As a result of the stringent and low risk authoritarian leadership of our politicians and health care leaders, the Wellness Model went aground; however, no word has been publicized about SHIN. The 1998 Fall Report of the Provincial Auditor states that $40 Million would be spent by December 1999 for the SHIN project. Today, we know that SHIN is working on providing e-mail support services to health providers, and that at least $1.5 Million has been spent on the obsolete and not implemented technology of Telehealth. Will we ever know how much money has been spent on SHIN and how much money we have been saving because of it?

References

[1] Managing Information Technology-A Vision for the Future-Information Technology Architecture, Saskatchewan Health, April 1995

[2] A Historical Perspective of The Saskatchewan Health Information Network, by Mario deSantis and James deSantis, March 1998 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-SHIN.htm

[3] Report of the Provincial Auditor, 1998 Fall Report. Refer to Saskatchewan Health Information Network, Chapter 5, pages 86-98, http://www.auditor.sk.ca

[4] Technological changes in Saskatchewan health care: an abysmal disaster, by Mario deSantis, May 27, 1999

[5] Website of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) http://www.shin.sk.ca

[6] Website of Saskatchewan Health, Government of Saskatchewan http://www.gov.sk.ca/health