The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario said they're constantly looking to upgrade their technology to make the hospital safer – something this weekend's CHEO telethon can help with.
Officials at the hospital point to an automatic medicine dispensing machine as an example of an upgrade they can make with fundraising money.
"The nurse comes to the dispensing cabinet, selects a patient and only the drawers specific to the patient," said CHEO pharmacist Regis Vaillancourt. "This way we're reducing the risk of making errors."
Vaillancourt added that by the nature of caring for children, errors in medication have more consequences.
CHEO CIO Tyson Roffey said tablet computers can also improve the doctor and patient experiences.
"We're less concerned whether we actually save time, more concerned about giving the best information to make the best decisions possible," he said.
Roffey also said the tablets can be used to comfort nervous patients, pointing to a video of a young girl donating blood at CHEO that's recieved over 26,000 views on YouTube.
"As a father of young children, it's something I would show my kids if they were going to give blood for the first time," he said.
Last year's CHEO telethon raised a record $6,258,971.
The telethon has raised over $65 million for the hospital since its first year in 1984.
This year's event begins at 7 p.m. Saturday on CTV Ottawa.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Kate Eggins
