SURGICAL WAIT TIME REDUCTIONS CONTINUE

Specialist Directory Benefits Patients and Doctors

As surgical wait times in Saskatchewan continue to decline, the province is highlighting an online directory and encouraging patients to take a more active role with their doctors in improving their surgical experiences.

Surgical data now updated to December 31, 2011, shows that the number of patients waiting longer than 18 months for surgery has dropped 89 per cent and the number waiting over 12 months has dropped 76 per cent. These figures represent improvements of two and three percentage points respectively since the previous monthly data update.

Saskatchewan has completed more than 62,400 surgeries since the start of this fiscal year (April), seven per cent more (approximately 4,100 cases) than during the same period last year.

"We are clearly moving in the right direction in surgical care," Highways and Infrastructure Minister Jim Reiter said on behalf of Health Minister Don McMorris. "The many projects and innovations underway in our health regions are contributing to real, sustainable progress on wait times. These efforts are making a difference to patients."

To enable surgical patients to be more involved in decisions about their care, Saskatchewan is promoting a user-friendly online directory through a television commercial now airing across the province.

The Saskatchewan Specialist Directory, at www.health.gov.sk.ca/specialists, was first launched in June 2010 and is updated weekly with information on approximately 300 physicians and dentists and all elective surgical procedures that occur in a Saskatchewan operating room. The interactive directory receives about 750 unique visitors every month.

Surgical patients and their families are encouraged to use the Specialist Directory to find information about surgeons practicing in the province, their wait times, where they provide services and procedures performed in the past year.

Dr. David Stoll, a La Ronge family physician who is featured in the commercial, said the Specialist Directory benefits both him and his patients.

"The directory helps me easily find wait times for different specialists and confirm whether they perform specific procedures," Dr. Stoll said. "The time I spend using it with my patients is well spent. It can mean they receive a procedure sooner and that they're happier with the surgical process."

Over time, the Specialist Directory could make a significant difference in surgical wait times, as patients understand that they have a choice to see other Saskatchewan surgeons with shorter wait times. Patients willing to travel may choose to have surgery sooner in a location other than their nearest surgical centre.

By the end of 2011-12, Saskatchewan's goal is to provide all patients with the opportunity to have surgery within 12 months of specialist referral. Currently, 99 per cent of all surgeries are completed with 18 months, and 96 per cent within 12 months. Six of the 10 health regions that provide surgical services are already providing 100 per cent of surgeries within 12 months.

The Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative (SkSI) is the province's four-year plan to provide sooner, safer, smarter surgical care. The SkSI's goals are to improve the surgical patient experience and by 2014, provide all patients with an opportunity to have surgery within three months.

View the Specialist Directory commercial at www.youtube.com/user/healthysask.

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For more information, contact:

Tyler McMurchy
Health
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4083
Email: tyler.mcmurchy@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-537-3594