Update on CST Project

As many of you may know, our senior executive met with the team from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) last week to discuss the draft findings coming out of the many interviews they held with many of those of you on the CST project.

Firstly we would like to thank you for taking the time and providing honest feedback to the PwC team.  It was extremely helpful to the senior executive to hear the perspective of those of you closely engaged in the CST project.  We were amazed and are appreciative of the ongoing commitment you have shown to ensuring the success of an extremely complex and challenging change transformation project in the health sector.  The collaboration and amount of excellent work that has been completed to date is astounding.  But clearly, some concerns were also identified and need to be addressed.

Based on a renewed commitment by the senior executive to a single instance ie one patient, one record for our health care users, the following steps were agreed to at the end of last week.

We will begin by updating our current plan.  In particular, timelines and our governance structure will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary to address the issues raised and a number of processes previously managed by TIBM’s Project Management Office will need to be incorporated.   PwC will assist us as we update our plan and develop a more effective governance structure.    We expect this process to take up to two months, although much of the current work underway is absolutely necessary and can continue in parallel (a few work streams may need to be sequenced differently based on the updated plan).  When we are clear on the path forward, we will be engaging a vendor to assist us in the completion of work required.  This work will benefit from and build on all the good work done to date.

We appreciate the patience you have shown during this pause in the CST project.  Although it is not unusual for a project of this size and complexity to need a reshape, being able to identify and adjust for some of the challenges early into the project is of significant benefit.  Thank you for your assistance.

We commit to keeping you informed, in a timely manner, of changes as they occur.

– Carl Roy (PHSA), Mary Ackenhusen (VCH) and Dianne Doyle (PHC)