Opposition questions handling of P.E.I. health documents blown away in wind

The Opposition is concerned about how important health records are being managed after a Health P.E.I. staffer lost an undisclosed number of medical documents to the wind.

Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser says an employee was transferring a box of documents outside a Health P.E.I. office in the Garfield Street area of Charlottetown on Wednesday when they were blown over by a gust of wind.

"It was a really unfortunate accident. I think Islanders will recognize what a blustery day it was," Fraser said.

"We had an individual staff member carrying a box of documents and the wind pushed them and the box over and a handful of documents fell out of the box."

The staffer immediately called for help and leapt into action, Fraser said.

"They went and tracked down as many documents as they could from the property here at the office. Some had even floated over into a neighbouring pond area and they retrieved some of the documents from the water."

Many of the documents were recovered and were being dried out. But some were lost, although Fraser didn't say how many.

During question period in the P.E.I. Legislature on Thursday, the Official Opposition questioned how documents are being stored.

"It's shocking the records can be handled so carelessly, transferred outdoors without secure containment," said Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly.

He asked Health and Wellness Minister Mark McLane if he would ensure Health P.E.I. is following record-keeping standards.

McLane told McNeilly that moving to electronic medical records will prevent similar mishaps in the future.

The province is already in the process of moving to an electronic medical system and is making progress in moving paper files to electronic medical records. But McLane said some physicians are reluctant to make the change and are still using paper records.

"There is no protection within our system for a filing cabinet that may be in someone's office, so again our transition to EMR will help us record health records more efficiently, share them with other providers and ensure their safety," the minister said.

McNeilly said after question period that he has empathy for the employee who lost the documents, but he wants to know what could have been done and what can be done in future to prevent something like this from happening.