St. Boniface Hospital will be the first facility with electronic patient records allowing doctors and nurses and other health providers to get access to complete patient records through the computer.
The records will include test results, doctor’s notes and medications.
Over the next five years the goal is to bring every facility in the province online, so they can access records from one hospital to another. And ultimately the records will also include those of private doctors' offices, such as family physicians.
It should ultimately be an electronic record of every patient’s journey through the health care system from birth to death, said Dr. Diamond Kassum, the chief medical officer of Manitoba eHealth.
Kassum said the system is extremely secure, and said any health official accessing the records will need an access code and possibly some sort of biometric security clearance, like fingerprints or retinal scans.
As well, a record will be kept of every person who accesses a patient's record.
Kassum said online systems improve health care delivery because physicians and other health providers can get a full picture of patients' health immediately. In other jurisdictions, electronic patient records have been shown to cut medical errors in half, said Kassum.
The system will cost $150 million for computers, software, and other components.
The St. Boniface Hospital version will begin working tomorrow.
Quelle/Source: Winnipeg Free Press, 11.04.2007
