Three weeks, many frustrated people, one coding issue: How Hamilton’s test result fiasco unfolded
The mystery surrounding why Hamiltonians faced long delays for negative COVID-19 test results appears to have been solved, but it took weeks of resident complaints and inquiries by The Hamilton Spectator for that to happened.
Questions still remain.
What we do know is this: Ontario Health, the group that oversees COVID lab testing, has identified the source of the problem as a coding issue between laboratory information systems which prevented negative COVID-19 tests from appearing on the provincial portal through which people access results.
The issue has been resolved, says Ontario Health, and at no point were positive results included in delays. The Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena drive-thru testing centre was the only site affected.
But for Hamiltonians who put life plans on hold, missing out on precious, long-awaited time with loved ones, those answers - and the realization that their results were processed, just sitting in limbo and not uploaded for days or weeks - are cold comfort.
To better understand the extent to which Hamiltonians were impacted and how problems came to light, we've put together a timeline of the three-week period over which the issue unfolded.
June 29
A man emailed The Spectator to say he and his wife, a health-care professional, were tested at the drive-thru arena after his wife developed symptoms of COVID-19. More than five days passed. They still had no results. The couple was forced to take time off work while waiting, costing them thousands of dollars in lost hours. If there is a reason Hamilton specifically is taking this long compared to many other cities then our citizens should be informed," the man wrote. He asked not to be identified, worried his wife's illness could impact her work.
That day, asked about potential delays, Hamilton's medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, said public health has no control over how fast test results are processed - that's in the hands of labs overseen by Ontario Health.
June 30
Asked about delays, Hamilton public health says: It may take up to 10 days currently to receive test results for COVID-19 due to the volume of tests being completed in Ontario."
July 2
The Spectator asked Ontario Health about delays on June 29. They responded July 2, saying lab networks were not meeting their test turnaround targets due to an increased volume of tests. Labs aim to turn around 60 per cent of tests the next day and 80 per cent within two days. An influx of tests meant they were seeing 66 per cent of tests turned around within two days. We are not aware of cases in which test result turnaround is significantly beyond the targets, however there are unique situations that have resulted in longer than anticipated timelines," a spokesperson said. We seek to learn and refine our operating procedures to mitigate these issues in the future."
Ontario Health later said they immediately investigated" upon learning of the delays at the end of June.
July 7
A director with Hamilton public health says they've seen an increase in calls from people wondering where their results are. People in Hamilton are almost always" waiting at least 10 days for negative test results, the director said. The issue appears isolated to Hamilton.
Richardson said public health is in regular contact with the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to figure out what's causing the delays. She advised people that day not to seek out a second test if they're still awaiting results of their first.
Rather than improving their turnaround time, they very well could be increasing that time that it takes because of increasing further the backlog and duplicate records and confusion in the system," she said.
July 8
At a provincial briefing, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott calls a 13-day delay not acceptable" and Premier Doug Ford says something's wrong."
Ontario Health says turnaround times in the west region, which includes Hamilton, remain in line" with the rest of the rest of the province. They again say they are not aware of cases in which test result turnaround is significantly beyond" two days.
July 9
Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, calls the delays unacceptable" at a provincial briefing.
If there are systemic problems, we need to address those," Williams said. If it's in the Hamilton area, we'd have to look at what are the barriers in that matter and how can we handle that."
He suggested it could be as simple as people being on vacation.
Often it's ... the lab doesn't transfer (the result), the result going back, it lands in a file, it's stuck on a desk, the person's off for three or four days' vacation, they didn't get back to call the person. While those are good excuses, there should be ways to handle that so that doesn't occur."
July 10
The drive-thru site emerges as a consistent variable in stories about delayed results.
The Spectator hears from more people tested on the Mountain facing delays of 10 days or more. Many are trying to visit loved ones in long-term care homes and need a negative result within 14 days of a test. They are anxious and frustrated.
At a meeting of the board of health, Coun. Brad Clark calls on the province to step up" and resolve the issue. Councillors say constituents are calling them complaining about the delays. City council plans to write a letter to the province, expressing their concerns.
July 13
Richardson says the delay issue appears connected to the provincial portal. To get around it, the drive-thru testing centre is allowing people tested there to return, accessing their results on-site four days post-test if they don't appear on the portal.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, agrees Hamilton's delays may be connected to portal issues.
We have been communicating the issues with the public health lab, the people who are running the lab network and the Ontario Lab Information System (OLIS)," Yaffe said at a media briefing. I know that they are fully aware of the issues and working very hard to fix them."
Monique Taylor, MPP for Hamilton Mountain, raises the issue in the provincial legislature
All these constituents want is confirmation that it is safe for them to interact with their loved ones or to know whether or not their health is in immediate jeopardy," Taylor said during question period. Why won't this government fix their broken testing system so that these families can finally have some peace of mind?"
Ontario Health tells The Spec late in the day it has identified the problem: A technical issue has been addressed that was resulting in some test results from the Hamilton lab not appearing in the provincial portal/viewer."
July 15
Ontario Health says the issue is fully resolved. It was unique to the Dave Andreychuk arena assessment centre and had to do with coding between laboratory information systems, dating back to April." Positive tests were not impacted.
July 16
A manager involved in running the drive-thru testing centre says staff took a beating" from the public over delays. People were returning to the drive-thru ... and insinuating that we lost their samples and it was our fault," said Laurel Turnbull. (They were) badmouthing us and demanding to be retested."
July 17
Ontario Health confirms the coding issue was not due to human error. There was an issue in the program's coding that meant some data from the referral centre could not be read and transferred to OLIS (Ontario Laboratories Information System). As a result, negative tests were not visible through the patient portal/viewer," a spokesperson said.
The agency does not respond to questions about how many people were impacted by the technical glitch or why it took three months to identify it.
The technical issue, they say, was fully resolved last week."
Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com