Nova Scotia’s healthcare system is plagued with governance and administrative problems, long wait times and poor worker morale.
These problems stem from flawed information gathering processes that make it difficult for the provincial government to manage healthcare expenditures. If the provincial government wishes to reduce healthcare costs, it will be necessary to adopt modern information systems to support the delivery of excellent care. Improving quality of information available to patients would help enable them to make sound choices about their health, and it would promote accountability by affording voters the information they need to evaluate the province’s healthcare system.
In the coming years, the provincial government should take advantage of advances in information technology to build a more sophisticated healthcare system that ensures patients, administrators and voters have the information they need to make the best possible choices.