Additional Services Impacted by IT Systems Outage at Western Health
Western Health is providing an update about the IT systems outage which continues to impact a number of health-related services in our region. We recognize the impact on residents in the region and apologize for the inconvenience.
Western Health is working with the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI), to assess the situation and work toward resolving the matter.
As a part of the ongoing assessment, Western Health’s Meditech system, the main information system which manages patient information, will not be operational. As a result, Western Health, will implement the following reduction in services at hospitals and health centres for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All appointments will proceed this week, except the changes noted below:
· Only urgent and emergency appointments will proceed for surgery, endoscopy, blood collection, medical imaging, outpatient EKG, and fracture clinics. INR blood collections will proceed. Western Health will endeavor to contact all individuals whose appointments are proceeding. All other appointments will be rescheduled.
· The following services will not be proceeding- orthopedic central intake, pre-admission clinic, pain clinic, and pap smears as they require either blood collection or medical imaging to support their work.
· Only urgent and emergency appointments will proceed for surgery, endoscopy, blood collection, medical imaging, outpatient EKG, fracture clinics, ortho central intake, pre-admission clinic, pain clinic, and for pap smears. INR blood collections will proceed. Western Health will endeavor to contact all individuals whose appointments are proceeding. All other appointments will be rescheduled.
· Chemotherapy appointments at Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital and Dr. Charles L. LeGrow Health Centre will proceed on Wednesday, Nov 3. Clients will be contacted directly regarding appointments on Thursday and Friday.
· Chemotherapy appointments at Western Memorial Regional Hospital will not be proceeding.
· The virtual breastfeeding support group on November 4 will not be proceeding.
· If you have not been contacted to rebook your appointment over the next week, please follow up with your health care provider. If you have immediate questions or concerns, please call 784-5470.
We kindly ask for your patience as many services may experience unavoidable delays caused by paper-based systems.
The current online portal for viewing COVID-19 test results is not available. If your result is positive, you will be contacted by public health. If 72 hours has passed since the time of your test and you have not yet heard from Public Health, you can assume that your test is negative. Individuals who require COVID-19 testing in the Western region are advised to call 1-833-608-1115, as the online self-assessment is not operational at this time.
Western Health will provide further updates as they are available.