IMPROVED DIAGNOSTICS, TREATMENT AND SERVICES FOR NORTHERN RESIDENTS

Patients in Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region will benefit from reduced wait times and improved access as result of a secure computer system for the storage, retrieval and display of diagnostic images such as X-rays and ultrasounds. The system is called the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).

Today's PACS and surgical funding announcements address recommendations in the Patient First review by improving access to diagnostic and specialist services for residents of Northern Saskatchewan and providing additional supports for people who must obtain health services away from their home communities.

"This announcement is very exciting for the North," Health Minister Don McMorris said. "PACS is a tool that makes health care safer and faster, and helps to reduce the need for residents to travel long distances to receive health care."

"Using PACS, a health care provider can discuss a patient's digital images taken in La Ronge with a radiologist or specialist in Saskatoon, while both securely view a patient's digital images in PACS," Mamawetan Churchill River CEO Kathy Chisholm said.

Authorized health care providers in Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region will also be able to access digital x-rays, CT Scans and MRIs done in other centres, when a patient is away from home, through their electronic medical record systems (EMRs), providing continuity of care when a patient returns to their home community.

La Ronge Health Centre joins hospitals in Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Lloydminster, Swift Current, Yorkton, North Battleford, Tisdale, Melfort, Nipiwan, Porcupine Plain, Kelvington, Hudson Bay, Stony Rapids, Humboldt and three hospitals in Saskatoon as the first hospitals in the province that have this type of digital imaging system. It is anticipated that by the end of 2012 the system will be provincial, serving every health region, connecting and strengthening digital imaging capacity and response times.

Safeguards are in place to ensure that only health professionals involved in patient care access personal health information. Policies, procedures and electronic security protect the information from unauthorized use, error or loss.

PACS and the Pharmaceutical Information Program (PIP) are the first components of a provincial electronic health record. More information is available at www.health.gov.sk.ca/pacs.

McMorris also announced $66,660 in funding from the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative for the Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region. The region does not provide surgical services, but will direct the funding to additional home care for surgical patients, and improved post-operative and outpatient rehabilitation for surgical patients who return home after having surgery in another health region.

The surgical funding is part of $40.4 million in additional provincial funding announced by McMorris on February 14 for the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative. It will enable health regions to complete more than 5,700 additional surgeries in 2011-12 - an increase of almost eight per cent.

The Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative was launched in March 2010. Its goals are to transform the surgical patient experience, and to ensure that by 2014 no surgical patient in Saskatchewan waits longer than three months for surgery. By the end of 2011-12, the province's goal is to reduce all surgical wait times to less than 12 months. More information is available at: www.health.gov.sk.ca/saskatchewan-surgical-initiative.

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For more information, contact:

Tyler McMurchy
Health
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4083

Linda Mikolayenko
Mamawetan Churchill River Health Region
La Ronge
Phone: 306-425-4812