BLUE PEBBLE CLEARED: STRONG PASSING GRADE FROM FORENSIC AUDITOR
"The CBC story this morning has irresponsibly misrepresented the facts. The Principals of Blue Pebble have never been and are not employees of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. " We are proud of our record and have always delivered on our contracts," said Blue Pebble Principal Neil Phasey.
"When the government introduced new rules this June, we went a step further by hiring an independent, forensic auditor,
Rosen made specific findings concerning Blue Pebble: - No conflicts of interest were found to exist as between Blue Pebble or its principals and its existing contracts. - Blue Pebble is compliant with the Ontario Government's new procurement policies created in June 2009, and was in compliance prior to June 2009. - Invoices and time sheets related to Blue Pebble's contracts with eHealth Ontario and other agencies contained billings that were in compliance with their contracts.
While the CBC's story claimed conflicts of interest involving Blue Pebble and its principals, the reality is that Blue Pebble acted within the province's rules at all times and delivered exceptional value to provincial healthcare. Additionally, the CBC story falsely alleged that Blue Pebble should not have continued its work with the ministry, and that Blue Pebble was hired by the eHealth Ontario's predecessor Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA). An internal 2008 Ministry of Health investigation found none of these allegations to be accurate.
Blue Pebble was engaged to solve three major challenges within the healthcare community care sector: The first was to standardize business systems related to financial and HR reporting. The second was to help create and implement standard assessment of patients and care. The third was to work with organizations to standardize and improve communications with one another. All of this increases quality and allows more dollars to go to patient care.
As a result of the work of Blue Pebble and others in the CCIM project, a number of important implementation successes have been achieved: - Implementing Management Information Systems (MIS) and Solutions in 42 CCACs, over 400 Community Support Organizations and over 420 CMH&A agencies to improve reporting and analysis of activities and results - Implementing RAI MDS2.0 into over 138 Long Term Care Homes - Implementing Common Assessment in 51 Mental Health Organizations. - Implementing long stay assessment tools across 42 Community Care Access Centres - Implementing Common Intake Assessment tools across 6 CCACs - Implementing a provincial e-referral solution across hospitals, CCACs, CSS and MHA setting - Implementing a provincial Integrated Assessment pilot in emergency department, community health centre and community mental health agencies.
Blue Pebble is a
For further information: For further information: Neil Phasey, Blue Pebble Inc., (416) 363-3900
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