MEMO
Date:
January 10, 2014
To:
Selkirk Hospital Staff
From: Brenda Neufeld, Vice President of Acute Care
Re:
Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) is coming to Selkirk & District General Hospital
What is EDIS?
EDIS is an electronic patient tracking and clinical documentation system that will launch in the Selkirk
Hospital ER in early March. This system will be used to track and monitor patient activity and care in the
emergency department. The system is connected to display boards in the department, providing up-todate information that can be used to:
 track patients through their journey
 manage workflow
 quantify delays in care delivery
 enhance communications, supporting timely and safe patient care
In addition, other electronic systems currently in use in the hospital such as the Radiology Information
System, the Lab Information System, and Admission Discharge and Transfer system will feed data into
EDIS. Once information like test results and scans are available, physicians will be alerted and data will
be displayed within EDIS.
There are a few changes to the ER department that will be visible to staff and patients:
A patient tracking display board will be located inside the emergency department. This board displays
information about each patient admitted to the ER.
The wait time display board located in the patient waiting area will display the number of patients
waiting and length of time most patients have been waiting. EDIS relies on historical ER information
to determine some of the values shown on the display board. It will take three weeks once we
activate EDIS before this board reflects any wait time information.
Enhanced Communication & Collaboration
Our hospital is the second outside of Winnipeg to begin using EDIS. The roll out of EDIS across the
Province will fulfill part of the long term vision to standardize Manitoba’s ER Program and enhance
communication and collaboration between regional health authorities. EDIS is currently used in Brandon
and in all ER departments across Winnipeg.
Requesting Your Patience
We’ve been advised that it will take at least a month and a half for staff to become proficient in using
EDIS. During this period of learning, we may experience longer wait times in our ER. We appreciate your
patience and reassurance to our patients that we’re making a change for the better.
If you have any questions about EDIS, please contact: Marilyn Debreuil, Regional Coordinator of IT, at
[email protected] or 204.785.4876.