Investment to upgrade pediatric monitors in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG – Ottawa is spending more than $3 million and Manitoba is chipping in an additional $760,000 to upgrade monitoring systems at Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg, which staff say will help improve outcomes of their smallest patients.

The money will help purchase 24 systems that give healthcare workers immediate notification of any changes to vital signs, including temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate.

“These new purchases allow us to activate a monitor in any situation in any room, so it’s less movement for patients who are sick and just to provide the care they need,” said Mary-Ellen Lee, the manager of patient care in one of the acute medicine units at the hospital, explaining that currently patients have to be moved to rooms with monitoring equipment.

Vital sign collection is automated, freeing staff up from entering data manually into a patient’s chart and helping to spot early signs of deterioration.

Lee hopes to have the technology on site within three to four months, and then it will take another four to five months to begin using it and understanding the readings.

Jim Carr, the member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre, recently announced the federal spending.

“It will provide parents the knowledge that their children, however sick they might be, are looked after by dedicated professionals who have the equipment they need to do their job,” he said at a news conference.