The Saskatchewan Health Authority will stop using the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) for scheduling following after an order from the provincial government in response to hearing about the challenges of AIMS from health employees.

SEIU-West had sounded the alarm at the beginning of October that AIMS was wreaking havoc on pay and schedules for members in the former Cypress Health Region.

The union had said at the time that members were unable to pay their bills and unable to make ends meet and patients in the health care system are being short changed because AIMS isn’t scheduling enough staff.

SHA CEO Andrew Will says that as a result of AIMS not being used for scheduling, health care workers will return to the old systems.

“While we’ve worked closely with our vendors to address functionality issues, we have determined that these cannot be resolved as quickly or as effectively as required. As a result, the Government of Saskatchewan has provided direction to the SHA, in partnership with 3s Health, to return employee scheduling to the previous systems.”

He adds that while health care workers return to the old scheduling system, work will be done to find a permanent solution.

“Following this transition, the SHA and 3s Health will evaluate our options for longer term scheduling solutions to strengthen how we support staff scheduling across the province and how we move forward together.”

Will says that only the scheduling part of AIMS is being scrapped.

“I want to be clear that this decision does not affect the first phase of AIMS, which continues to support stable operations in payroll, finance, supply chain, and human resources.”

The switch to the previous scheduling system is expected to be completed by Nov. 30.