Manitoba will have electronic patient records that can be shared between hospitals by next spring

By next spring, every Manitoba hospital is expected to start building electronic records that allow a patient's care history to follow them from one hospital to another.

"I think Manitoba was behind in this, and I'm so happy this is happening, because this makes everything safer," said Dr. Iraj Ghanbari, the site medical lead at Lakeshore General Hospital in Ashern.

His Interlake hospital is among the first to roll out the shared electronic patient record system, replacing paper records. Ashern's emergency department has been using the system for all new patients since March.

The province says the change will be made in all hospitals by next March, as part of a gradual rollout.

Ghanbari said the change means he can ask for a consult from an internal medicine specialist, and within two minutes, he reads the digital system.

"I see what's the plan for the patient," he said, eliminating the need to wait for a fax or make phone calls for patient records.

"As a result, providers can spend less time searching for the information and more time focusing on the patient's care."

In addition to making it easier for care teams to collaborate, the new system "decreases the stress of the patient as well, because they see that I have access to accurate information in just a second," said Ghanbari.

At Ashern, the electronic patient records are being created for each emergency patient during their first visit under the new system. That means historical data isn't included, but Ghanbari said for current and future visits, details about medications, diagnoses, consultations, treatment notes and day-to-day updates are being recorded.

That data can be built upon during future visits to Manitoba hospitals. Medical staff can search information through each patient's personal health identification number.

Ghanbari believes the change is already cutting down on errors compared to the paper systems.

An added bonus: nobody is struggling to decipher penmanship on paper charts.

"I don't like my handwriting, honestly, because I'm writing very fast. Sometimes even I'm not able to read it myself," Ghanbari said, smiling.

The provincial government said the electronic patient records will be available provincewide by March 31, 2027, but will be limited to acute care facilities, including emergency departments, in-patient units and urgent care centres. Family doctors or pharmacists won't be able to access them.

While future expansions to digital records will be considered, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the electronic patient records rolling out in the next year are an overdue improvement.

"If you talk to front-line health-care workers, and if you talk to folks who are maybe not from Manitoba and looking for a place to practise, having a modernized digital health system is a top priority for everybody," they said.

The new digital tool is already in place in Winnipeg at St. Boniface Hospital and the Women's Hospital, as well as in Ashern, Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Neepawa.

The Health Sciences Centre, the province's largest hospital, will come on board in August.

So far, the NDP government has spent around $160 million on the electronic patient record project. This year, $36.5 million will be spent on capital costs and $18 million on operating costs, the province said.

"It's absolutely an ambitious target" to be ready by March, Asagwara said, but the province has "put the necessary accountabilities and governance in place to really support this moving forward."

"And we're actually seeing implementation get better and better as we go."

Doctors Manitoba, which advocates for physicians, appreciates the shift toward electronic records, but the organization said it will watch the execution closely, since major IT projects sometimes don't actually save time or simplify processes.

In other jurisdictions, some major technological changes in medicine have faltered because of ineffective consultations, rushed timelines and the shifting of administrative tasks from clerks to physicians, spokesperson Keir Johnson said in an email.

Doctors Manitoba and Shared Health, the provincial health authority, hosted a webinar Friday for physicians interested in learning about electronic patient records.

While Manitoba is moving to digital records as a substitute to paper charts, other aspects of the health-care system have been utilizing electronic files for longer. For example, the eChart system includes drug prescriptions, lab results, immunizations and X-ray reports.

However, removing paper from the entire continuum of patient care will be challenging.

For example, Ashern's Ghanbari said he's recording medication into the digital system but still needs to fax the prescription to the pharmacy. And he's still writing out his orders, authorizing specific medications or patient treatments, on paper.

Asagwara said there may always be some place for paper in the medical system, given technologies can fail, but the ultimate goal is to have a fully electronic patient record and charting system. That could take years, the minister said.