BC family doctors warn that fragmented digital records are jeopardising patient care

When Dr. Jennifer Lush sits down with a patient in her Victoria clinic, she doesn’t just listen to symptoms; she also wrestles with a maze of computer screens. Each screen belongs to a different electronic medical‑record (EMR) system, none of which talk to one another. It’s a daily reality for most family doctors across British Columbia, and the consequences are beginning to surface in waiting rooms, radiology departments and, sometimes, in patients’ own health outcomes.

The B.C. College of Family Physicians used its annual conference this week to raise the alarm. In a statement that cut straight to the bone, the college highlighted that the province now runs on “more than 40 different digital health systems that don’t connect.” The result? Longer wait times for scans, duplicate lab orders, and a creeping sense of frustration for both clinicians and the people they care for.

Health Minister Ravi Kahlon responded on the spot, promising to treat the issue as a “top priority.” He said he would look at what Alberta and Ontario have done – Alberta already boasts a province‑wide, interoperable health‑record network, while Ontario is rolling out its own version. "I welcome the suggestion from family physicians because we need independent practices to think about how we can connect those systems," Kahlon told reporters. "It’s not just about hospitals; it’s about the whole ecosystem."

Dr. Lush, who also serves as the college’s president, expressed cautious optimism. She praised the minister’s willingness to listen but warned that words must translate into action. "Every time a patient is sent for an imaging test, only for that result to get lost because the specialist’s system can’t see my notes, we add another weeks to the wait list and another dollar to the bill," she explained. "Sometimes the same scan is ordered twice, simply because the information never made it across the digital divide."

The stakes go beyond inconvenience. Lush recounted a frightening scenario where a patient with a severe allergy is taken to an urgent‑care clinic that can’t see the allergy flag in the physician’s chart. If medication is administered without that crucial warning, the outcome could be life‑threatening. "An unconscious patient can’t tell you they’re allergic, and a broken system can’t tell you either," she said, her voice steady but urgent.

To give a voice to the people most affected, the college has launched a website called Connect Every Visit. The portal gathers stories from patients who have experienced delays or errors because of the fragmented system, and it also offers a simple way for residents to send messages to their local MLAs. One of the site’s opening questions is almost rhetorical: "Are you a patient in B.C. and wondered why your doctor is still using a fax machine?" The answer, as the site explains, is that the province’s health IT landscape is more like a patchwork quilt than a seamless fabric.

Behind every visit, an EMR is supposed to capture a patient’s history, medications, test results and referrals. In theory, that information should travel with the patient, no matter which doctor they see. In practice, many physicians report juggling two to five separate platforms for a single patient, and almost 40 % say they re‑enter the same data manually each week. The college’s recent survey found that doctors lose an average of 30 minutes a day to this administrative shuffle – roughly the length of a typical patient appointment.

What would a unified system look like? Dr. Lush says the first step is a clear commitment from the provincial government to retire outdated technology – think fax machines and stand‑alone databases – and invest in an interoperable platform that links primary‑care offices, hospitals and specialist clinics. "From there we can work out the details," she said. "But right now we don’t even have that promise. That’s what we’re asking for today."

She also noted that colleagues from Alberta, when visiting BC’s clinics, were often shocked at how “backwards” the system feels. "They showed us a province where a patient’s record follows them from a family doctor’s office to the emergency department without a hitch," Lush recalled. "That’s the kind of experience we want for British Columbians."

For now, the conversation is moving from the conference rooms of the College of Family Physicians to the corridors of provincial power. As Minister Kahlon says he will study best practices from other provinces, the hope is that British Columbia can finally stitch its digital health quilt into a single, functional tapestry – one that puts patients first, reduces unnecessary tests, and lets doctors spend more time listening and less time clicking.