Wait times have grown exponentially at Boundary Trails Health Centre's emergency room, at times as much as six hours.

"It's going to be a lot slower," ER Director Dr. John Allen explains.

For those with serious injuries or conditions, he says the ER is still the best place to receive timely care.

However, for the next month or so, Allen encourages patients with non-life threatening concerns to attend a local clinic while they learn a new system.

The hospital's ER is still transitioning, from pen and paper record keeping, to computer data entry.

Eileen Vodden, Regional Director of Acute Care says the change includes two new digital systems.

The 'Admission Discharge Transfer' program includes the digital record of patients' Manitoba health number and date of birth etc.

"It's the foundation that collects all the patient information," Vodden explains. "And then the electronic triage process takes over."

The second is EDIS, Emergency Department Information System, which will allow staff to post wait times on a monitor in the ER.

In the future, average wait times on any given day will also be posted on the hospital's website, giving people more information when deciding to come into the ER.

Both are being rolled out across the Province, and will make sharing information between health providers seamless.

Until now, those documents had to be photocopied and sent along with ambulance attendants or by Canada Post.