"We were created to fix a lagging program. We are working on a tight deadline and so we had to leapfrog (some processes)," she said.

eHealth was established by the Liberal government some eight months ago to merge the e-health programs of the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and the Smart Systems for Heath Agency (SSHA). eHealth's mandate was to develop a digital record system for the province by 2015 to enable health-care providers to electronically share patient information. The program is supposed to prevent medical errors and reduce costs.

The Canada Health Infoway reports that without a comprehensive e-health record system, for every 1,000 patients in the country, the following will likely happen:

• 75 individuals admitted into hospitals will suffer an adverse drug event

• 150 lab tests performed will be unnecessary