By Chad Klassen

Kamloops doctor hoping to improve operating room with new online booking system

Mar 29, 2019 | 3:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Every day on average, up to 45 surgeries happen out of Royal Inland Hospital. 

They are currently booked, some rescheduled and cancelled, on paper. Dr. Simon Treissman is trying to change that, creating a new online system to make the process smoother. 

“We think, firstly, it will allow the surgery department to make better decisions about what urgent cases should be done and what urgent cases can go on the elective list,” he said. 

As of the end of February, RIH says there are nearly 500 people on a waitlist for knee and hip replacements. Dr. Treismann believes it could in fact allow the hospital to conduct more surgeries. He adds, if this is adopted by Interior Health, resources could be shared across the region. 

“What this will theoretically allow us to do is, if someone has a hip fracture and they’re waiting for surgery, it may be they’re better waiting on the waitlist in Kelowna, even though they’re physically here in Kamloops,” he noted. “It may be faster to take someone to the operating room if we share our emergency resources. There are technical ways to do that, so we’re just touching on network capabilities with this system.”

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Dr. Treissman says the system could be accessed by any hospital in Canada and around the world. He’s been working on it since 2012, using his own money to fund the research, recently finishing a three-month trial at RIH from December 2018 to February 2019. 

“Firstly, the system survived, so we weren’t rejected by the operating room staff,” said Dr. Treissman. “Second thing is, it appears to be safe, so there was no impact on patient safety, there was no negative repercussions of introducing the system.”

The system automatically sends text messages to surgeons, anesthesiologist, and nurses in case of an emergency, saving a staff member from making phone calls.

Interior Health says the younger employees embraced the new system, while older staff were most comfortable with the clipboard style. 

“It was a mixed response. Whenever you roll out change, in a work environment and particularly a very busy health care work environment like an operating room, there’s going to be some resistance,” said Interior Health research development project lead Ross Cuthbert. “Change is never easy. People are overworked as it is in health care, so managing a trial like this can be very sensitive.”

Beyond the trial, it’s not known when the online system could go live, but Dr. Treissman believes it could make a difference in terms of cutting down wait times in the future.