Former Nova Scotia Health employee gave up on wait-time project, supervisor says
A former Nova Scotia Health data analyst alleging he was fired for criticizing an emergency department wait-time prediction project became “disengaged” after his idea for the project wasn’t chosen, a former manager says.
Andrew Yang is undergoing a Nova Scotia Labour Board arbitration under the Public Interest Disclosure Wrongdoing Act, arguing he experienced retaliation after raising issues about the project he said could affect public safety.
Yang said he escalated concerns he perceived about the project, verbally and in writing, over the course of a year before he was moved off the project. He was eventually fired.
Juan Encinas, who was Yang’s direct supervisor, testified on Monday the former employee was never never formally moved off that project and, instead, Yang just stopped contributing to it.
Encinas said Yang became unmotivated and stopped showing up to meetings after it was decided how to proceed with the project, Encinas said.
Project development
Yang headed the project when development began for the online tool in March 2022.
During the development stage, Encinas said Yang and another employee proposed different models for how the emergency department wait-time prediction project would operate.
The model suggested by the other employee, a co-op student, was eventually chosen. Yang’s attitude toward work changed soon after that, his former manager said.
The online wait-time tool was launched this June as a way to predict wait-times at 10 emergency departments across the province.
Yang testified last week he believed the data provided for the model was insufficient, and to predict wait-times hours in advance would be “feeding a prediction model with a prediction” — a single error would be amplified.
He said it was an ethical issue, but his supervisors said on Monday that Yang had only ever brought up a technical issue in the early stages of development.
Steven Carrigan, analytics director at Nova Scotia Health, also testified Monday. He said Yang never followed up with him after expressing his initial concern.
Yang became “disengaged” in the months that followed the decision on what model to use, Encinas said.
Encinas said he knew Yang had strong technical skills, so he tried to find other projects that would “re-engage” him, but his attitude didn’t change.
Yang continued to criticize the emergency department wait-time prediction project months after he stopped working on it and had direct knowledge of the work, Encinas said.
When Yang’s contract expired at the end of March, Encinas said he decided he wouldn’t be able to change the employee’s attitude and decided not to renew.
Encinas will be cross-examined by Yang’s lawyer on Tuesday.
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