The Saskatchewan Health Authority’s newly rolled out Administrative Information Management System continues to cause issues for healthcare workers and hospitals across the province.

In late June, the SHA launched the AIM system: an initiative that’s goal was to replace over 80 individual programs dedicated to payroll, scheduling, and supply deliveries.

However, the system has missed payments to numerous health care workers, delayed payments to health system partners and vendors, and interrupted supply deliveries to several Saskatchewan hospitals.

The SHA processes about 50,000 paychecks every two weeks through the AIM system. Andrew Will, CEO of the SHA, says about 1 per cent or 500 people have experienced payment delays, or no pay at all.

Mike Northcott, SHA Chief Human Resource Officer, says payment issues continue to be addressed on a case-by-case basis until the system is fixed. In order to receive a missed payment, healthcare workers must notify the SHA, who will then send an e-transfer instead. This implies that it is up to the employee to catch the mistake, forcing them to watch their accounts on payday to ensure they received their money.

The original budget for the system was $168 million over ten years, however the provincial government has already put $203 million into the project. The SHA says the budget increased due to several factors. These include the move to a phased-in implementation approach, system enhancements, and development delays caused by the pandemic.

Despite all of these issues, Will says it’s more reliable than the system the SHA was working with before.

“Our previous state was extremely risky. WE had more than 80 systems. Our payroll system was 50 years old. It was in a programming language that they don’t even train people how to program in today’s world.”

Once the payment-related phase of the AIMS rollout is stabilized, future phases will address employee scheduling, as well as how they enter their time.