On a week when the privacy of patient medical records is an issue in Winnipeg, a new study looks at how fast doctors are switching to digital.
The study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows the number of doctors switching to electronic medical records is growing nationally.
It said in 2009 only 37 per cent of doctors used electronic medical records. That number jumped to 73 per cent nationally in 2015.
Manitoba is on par with the national average, falling behind Alberta at 85 per cent and the Commonwealth Fund average of 88 per cent.
Pediatrician, Dr. Stan Lipnowski switched to Electronic Medical Records 2.5 years ago, “in terms of safety it’s much easier to ensure people don't look in there, people can still look but we can always tack them down find out who looked in the chart if somebody looked who wasn't supposed to look.”
The institute released the study on the same week the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority announced two January security breaches.
Someone stole information of 92 WRHA patients from two vehicles on Jan. 14 and 17.
In Manitoba, 73 per cent of doctors deal in digital, on par with the national average.
But the province falls about 10 points behind Canada’s other western provinces, and well below the Commonwealth Fund average of 88 per cent.
“Now that I don't have to take my files home to work on them at night, I can just do them from my laptop and the program we use is also encoded so it's very hard to break in to,” said Lipnowski.
This study also found Canada falls in 19 place out of 28 amongst commonwealth countries for access to health care.
Part of the reason, noted by the Canadian Institute for Health Information is that 70 per cent of Canadian primary care doctors think their patients spend a long time waiting for specialists.
That was the highest proportion amongst all countries.
The study did however find access to after-hours care is improving in Canada.
