This medical innovation, says surgeon Scott Cowie, is a game changer.
An electronic reporting system implemented at 91原创 Memorial Hospital now allows endoscopists (surgeons who perform colonoscopies/gastroscopies) to record images and create synoptic reports, and share these with other physicians throughout the Fraser Health region instantaneously.
Fraser Health is the first region in the province to implement such a system.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like a network that records the images you are taking from the patient,鈥� Cowie said.
鈥淎nd also, you create the report about the patient in that system rather than dictating them.鈥�
The report is sent from the computer network from the endoscopy unit to the network for the entire Fraser Health region, and it is also shipped out electronically to all the referring physicians.
Cowie has been the physician champion for this project for about four years and LMH is the first site in the region to use the system.
鈥淥ur local site executive director was a strong advocate to help LMH move ahead in this,鈥� said Cowie, who has been a surgeon at 91原创鈥檚 hospital for the past 10 years.
鈥淚 think this may stand in counterbalance perhaps to the checkered roll-outs of EMR systems elsewhere in the province recently.鈥�
LMH鈥檚 endoscopy unit is a busy service which offers 24-hour care to patients, and performed 11 per cent of the all screening colonoscopies for the region last year, including specifically identified high risk patients.
鈥淭his system will help us improve patient care and provide cost savings,鈥� Cowie said.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a game-changer for a lot of reasons. It鈥檚 cost effective. It鈥檚 saving the health care system money because we鈥檙e cutting back on using expensive photo paper. That seems like a small thing, but it鈥檚 actually really expensive to print images out, which we had to do for quality purposes, so now it鈥檚 electronically captured, so that saves a fair bit of money.鈥�
Cowie said a crucial element is the ease in which information can be shared.
鈥淔raser Health is a big region, geographically,鈥� Cowie said. 鈥淭here are about 70 physicians doing endoscopy across the region at different sites, and they all share information to each other about patients. For example, if I鈥檓 doing a scope here (at LMH) and that patient needs another procedure in the near future or three years from now, what I capture and see here wasn鈥檛 easily available for somebody, say, in Abbotsford.鈥�
In past, at the very best, physicians at other hospitals would be delivered a grainy, black-and-white image that Cowie described as 鈥渉ardly useful at all.鈥�
鈥淏ut with this system, because we plan to put it out at every site in the region, they will be able to see images exactly as I see them,鈥� he added. 鈥淚nstantaneously, too, so there鈥檚 no lag in seeing it.鈥�
Quality metrics is also a key, Cowie noted.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really focused on looking at outcomes for patients,鈥� Cowie explained. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing, like, 4,650 surgeries (at LMH) a year, and (the) Fraser Health (region), we鈥檙e doing about 45,000 procedures like this a year. These are high-volume things so we want to make sure everything is being done properly and achieving the outcomes you want to get. There鈥檚 very specific quality measures.鈥�
In the broader picture, the system 鈥渋s going to make everybody鈥檚 job a lot easier,鈥� Cowie said. 鈥淚n the immediacy of actually using it, it鈥檚 as easy as what we did before, so it鈥檚 value added.鈥�
The system is being rolled out across the region, starting at Surrey Memorial and then, on a monthly basis, to all of the other Fraser Health hospitals, including Royal Columbian, Eagleridge, and Burnaby.
