The Portage District General Hospital is one of three facilities in Southern Health-Sante Sud converting to the Emergency Department Information System, or EDIS, patient tracking method.

It's to replace the paper-based system that's currently in place.

Vice-president of Medical Services Dr. Denis Fortier calls this leading edge technology, but stresses the RHA's not the leader.

"This has been present in St. Boniface Hospital for ten years, now, and we've been asking for this for many, many years. So this is one component, a piece of the electronic patient records strictly for emergency departments. And part of the reason is it's just so costly -- we have to do this a little bit at a time."

Fortier cautions there could be a temporary increase in wait times, due to the steep learning curve for staff.

"Most of our providers have undergone quite a bit of training, but all the training in the world sometimes does not prepare you for real time. So, I anticipate there may be increased wait times in the next couple of weeks. I would strongly urge the public to consider, for the non-emergency visits, try to find alternative options."

The EDIS system will be launched at the Portage hospital later this week. It's also going to be in place in Winkler and Steinbach.