The Emergency Department at Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) is making a big change this week. Effective today, it is switching from pen and paper record keeping to computer data entry. Dr. Denis Fortier, vice-president of Medical Services for Southern Health, says they are doing the changeover this week at BTHC as well as at the Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach and the Portage District Hospital. He notes many people are probably surprised that they are not already computerized.

"I think there are many people who think that this is the way that things have been for the last 20 years. But the actual fact is, no, we're late in coming in on this. It's just very costly. There are added issues related to personal health information and privacy and so it's really been slow and complicated and fairly expensive to get to this point."

Dr. Fortier asks people to be extra patient for the next few weeks as they make the transition because there are bound to be glitches that slow things down. He even suggests that, in less urgent cases, people consider going to a quick care clinic or doctor's office for treatment because of the anticipated challenges in making the change.

"We know it's going to happen that there's going to be glitches, there are going to be some issues that may, in turn, cause some delays in care in the early days of

transitioning. We've done a lot of training, we've done a lot of support and we will continue to have support for our health care providers in the Emergency  Room for the next couple of weeks as we transition. But that will still possibly lead to some slowing down in the early parts of this of care in the Emergency Department."

He notes a nice side effect of this change is that within about a month they will begin to post wait times on a monitor in the ER to let people know how long it will take for them to be seen. Dr. Fortier adds, down the road, they will probably post those wait times on the hospital's website. He says there will be many benefits to going computerized.

"Processing people electronically, their lab results will be collected electronically, their clinical documentation will be done electronically and all of that information will be stored in a super computer. It's information that is then available to other health care providers in other Emergency Departments, be it in Winnipeg or elsewhere, who have access to the same system. So it allows for seamless transitioning of patient information as needed from one site to another."

Dr. Fortier says this will be especially helpful when a patient is transferred from the local Emergency Room to one in Winnipeg as information will be instantly available to health providers. Until now, those documents had to be photocopied and sent along with ambulance attendants. Dr. Fortier says, under the new system, the moment a patient is discharged from ER, the records will instantly be faxed to their family doctor so they have the records they need. Until now, those documents were photocopied and sent by Canada Post to the doctor's office.