Sick of waiting rooms? New online map tracks clinic wait times

The creators of an online map promise to give Winnipeg patients a better sense of where they can get the fastestcare at walk-in clinics in the city.

Medimap recently arrived in Winnipeg and hassigned up eight clinics in the city.

The B.C.-based company has ambitions toexpand in both Manitobaand across Canada,said Blake Adam,co-founder ofMedimap.

The online tool is already working with240 clinicsin four provinces: B.C., Alberta,Ontario and Manitoba.

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"We want to improve access to care for patients by making information more easily available and just reduce the frustration," said Adam. "It's also great for clinics of course, because it means less phone calls about the wait times."

When patients loginto Medimap, the website shows all participating clinics in the city, their distance to the user and on the left, displaysestimated wait times.

Clinics who sign on get reminders to update their estimated wait times every half hour, said Adam.

"It's free for clinics to join and be part of the the site and it's free for patients [to] access it," he said.

The company plans to roll out premium paid features for clinics at a later date.

Rebecca Hunt manages three clinics in Winnipeg that have signed on to Medimap Pavilion Medical Clinic, Viva Care Medical Clinic and Sunshine Medical Clinic.

She said so far, few patients have heard of Medimap but expects there to be more users after the clinics roll out more advertising about the new online tool.

"Once word gets out about this app being out there for patients I think it would be a really great benefit for patients," Hunt said.

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Hunt said along with posting wait times, her clinics are also able to post if they have reached capacity for the day or changeclinic hours on a day-to-day basis.

"With closures, with holidays it just makes it a little bit easier," she said. "Long-term it's going to be great for our patients to be able to plan things accordingly."

Adam said he hopes the Medimap service will soon become ubiquitous across Canada as the central resource for finding information onwalk-in clinics, including wait times.

"We figured there was an opportunity to greatly improve the efficiency of the system by creating a centralized resource," he said. "And it's growing every day."

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