The Nova Scotia Health Authority stands as a pivotal entity in Canada's healthcare landscape, overseeing the comprehensive health system of Nova Scotia. It encompasses 41 acute care hospitals and 204 clinics, representing the province's largest employment force with over 23,000 employees and 2,500 physicians. This vast network serves as the backbone of Nova Scotia's healthcare, ensuring accessible, quality medical services across the province.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority faced a daunting challenge with over 82,000 unique forms across 41 hospitals, leading to inefficiencies and compliance risks. Spearheading a strategic overhaul, I led the creation of a centralized eForms ecosystem, streamlining processes by reducing unique forms to 1,400 and ensuring up-to-date access. This transformation not only enhanced operational efficiency and compliance across Nova Scotia's healthcare system but also established a scalable model for future-proofing healthcare document management, marking a significant leap forward in healthcare administration.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority faced a daunting challenge with a fragmented forms management system spread across its vast network of 41 hospitals and 204 clinics. Each hospital independently managed an array of approximately 2,000 unique forms, resulting in a staggering total of over 82,000 unique documents system-wide. This decentralized approach led to significant inefficiencies and compliance risks, particularly when hospitals ran out of pre-printed forms. Nurses often resorted to using outdated versions, exacerbating the compliance risks and operational inefficiencies. The critical need for a streamlined, centralized forms management solution was evident, aimed at not only reducing the sheer volume of unique documents but also ensuring the most up-to-date forms were always readily available, thereby enhancing overall operational efficiency and compliance across the entire health system. This set the stage for a comprehensive strategic overhaul to address these multifaceted issues head-on, requiring innovative thinking and a meticulous, coordinated approach to transform the outdated system into a streamlined, modern solution.
To address the fragmented forms management system, I spearheaded a comprehensive strategy that revolutionized how the Nova Scotia Health Authority managed its documents. The solution entailed an extensive initial phase of gathering all existing forms across the network for a thorough audit. This was followed by the meticulous task of consolidating and standardizing these forms into a unified set, significantly reducing redundancy and complexity. We then embarked on creating electronic versions of these standardized documents, ensuring they were designed to meet the diverse needs of the entire health network.
A pilot program was carefully designed and implemented in select facilities to test the viability and efficiency of the new electronic forms system. This pilot phase allowed for real-time adjustments and provided valuable insights, which informed the subsequent incremental rollout plan. The final solution was a robust, centrally managed eForms ecosystem hosted in Halifax, extending its reach to all hospitals and clinics across Nova Scotia. This strategic overhaul not only streamlined the management of healthcare documents but also established a new benchmark for operational efficiency and compliance adherence in the healthcare sector.
The comprehensive strategy and execution of the centralized eForms ecosystem yielded transformative outcomes for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. Within a two-year timeframe, the project dramatically streamlined the forms management process, reducing the total number of unique forms from over 82,000 to just 1,400—a 98.3% decrease. This monumental reduction significantly alleviated the administrative burden on healthcare professionals, ensuring the latest form versions were always accessible and eliminating previous compliance risks associated with outdated documents.
The centrally hosted system in Halifax now serves as a model for efficiency, scalability, and compliance, future-proofing the document management process across Nova Scotia's healthcare system and setting a new standard for healthcare administration nationwide.
