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. Related to the ongoing assessment, we are planning for downtime of our main network for a period of 36 to 48 hours. We are scheduling the network outage to begin 6 p.m. Friday, November 5.
Western Health’s Meditech system, the main information system which manages patient information, is not operational and restoration of the system will be gradual. As a result, Western Health, will maintain its current level of services into Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 8 and Nov. 9) of next week. All appointments will proceed, 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.
· Chemotherapy appointments at Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital and Dr. Charles L. LeGrow Health Centre will proceed.
· Chemotherapy appointments at Western Memorial Regional Hospital are safely proceeding at a reduced capacity. If your appointment is going ahead, you will be called directly. Please answer unknown numbers as it may be your health-care team calling with further information. Appointments scheduled for the week of November 8, 2021 may experience some delays as we continue to work through this interruption.
We kindly ask for your patience as many services may experience unavoidable delays caused by paper-based systems.
Once services are restored, Western Health will be in contact with all clients impacted to identify new appointment times. However, if you have questions or concerns you may call the temporary patient inquiries line at 1-833-879-0390.
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.