A group of Niagara doctors are calling for compensation from Niagara Health for mandatory training.
More than 200 people have signed a petition calling for physicians to be paid for mandatory Hospital Information System training.
The group says they are not being compensated for the training and instead are being offered Continuing Medical Education credits.
They say Niagara Health should negotiate appropriate pay for the training or risk a delay in its rollout due to a physician boycott.
The Hospital Information System is an electronic records system aimed at connecting patients and healthcare providers with information to increase the accuracy and efficiency of care, reduce duplication and errors, and help improve health outcomes.
Niagara Health says it will be a critical element to support delivery of modern, world-class healthcare.
"The new HIS is a significant investment that will greatly benefit our patients, doctors and overall patient care. This system will streamline workflows, improve access to accurate patient information and enhance communication across teams. It’s a critical step in making our hospital a better place to practice medicine, ultimately leading to better outcomes for patients", says Dr. Satish Chawla, Niagara Health's interim EVP Medical, Chief of Staff.
"We are aware of the petition circulating and the concerns raised by some physicians about compensation for mandatory training on our new Hospital Information System (HIS), which is set to go-live on Nov. 9. Our approach is aligned with other hospitals that have moved to an HIS and did not pay physicians for mandatory training. Compensation was only provided to those who undertook additional training to become HIS superusers. Our decision, supported by our Physician Chiefs at Niagara Health, was to offer Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits as a recognition for completing the training.
As a hospital facing financial pressures, we made a decision not to take funding out of direct patient care to compensate physicians."
The petition claims the budget for the program is 150-million dollars and paying physicians would cost roughly 400-thousand dollars.
Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/demand-fair-compensation-for-niagara-health-system-physicians-for-his-training