WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is investing $6.5 million to help modernize the information and communication technology used in health-care facilities.
Health Minister Heather Stefanson made the announcement in a news release on Monday, noting that the funds will be invested over three years to replace voice dictation and transcription services and to upgrade the triage, call recording, and telephone systems at the Provincial Health Contact Centre (PHCC).
“Our government is investing in the proper maintenance of information and communications technology to ensure digital health information can be safely stored and shared as needed,” the minister said in the news release.
“These systems will ensure health-care facilities can continue to provide high-quality services and allows Manitobans to get faster access to health-care resources and information.”
According to the province, about 80 health-care facilities in Manitoba use a combination of dictation, transcription, and voice recognition services to write reports.
As many of these systems are near the end of their usable lives, the funds will help replace telephone-based dictation and transcription with voice recognition functions. It will also be used to upgrade voice recognition services for diagnostic imaging and enhance voice recognition tools for mobile devices.
The province noted the new systems will be compatible with the existing ones, will decrease turnaround times, and will be standardized across the province.
“Across our health system, radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians use voice-dictation services to help create diagnostic reports when reading imaging studies like ultrasound, nuclear medicine studies, X-rays, angiography, MRI and CT scans,” said Dr. Marco Essig, Shared Health’s provincial specialty lead for diagnostic imaging.
“Enhanced dictation and voice-recognition services will enable us to work more efficiently and provide health-care providers with quicker access to these reports that support the diagnoses and treatment of Manitobans every day.”
The PHCC is the contact centre for incoming and outgoing citizen contact. It supports programs such as Health Links-Info Santé, TeleCare-TeleSoins and After-Hours Physician Access, and also provides after-hours support services to public health, medical officers of health, home care, and Manitoba Families.
Since the current vendor that supplies communications support to the PHCC is no longer providing service, the province’s funds will go towards an upgraded system.
“The PHCC makes more than 650,000 customer service calls to Manitobans per year to a broad spectrum of clients with varied health issues. This reduces the need for people to visit a physician, urgent care, or emergency departments,” Stefanson said.
“The upgrade will also allow Manitobans in many communities to continue accessing the support they need from their home or local health centre, reducing the need for unnecessary travel.”
