New MySaskHealthRecord feature gives updates on surgical procedures

With the push of a button or the tap of a screen, people in Saskatchewan waiting for surgeries can receive information about their planned surgeries.

The new Surgical Procedures feature on MySaskHealthRecord is a “first in Canada,” according to the Government of Saskatchewan.

The feature provides real-time updates to users about the scheduled time and place for a procedure, the status of appointments and surgeries, and even the name of the surgeon/specialist who’s expected to perform the operation.

“In certain circumstances depending on your relationship with your surgeon, it might come through a phone call (and) a follow-up could be mail, so this is just another tool to get that information a little quicker to patients,” Paul Maindonald, vice-president of digital services and CIO at eHealth Saskatchewan, said during a media event Tuesday.

The feature will be accessible online and via the app.

Tim McLeod, Saskatchewan’s rural and remote health minister, said that since the MySaskHealthRecord website was launched in October 2019, roughly 693,000 people have signed up for an account and more than 80,000 have downloaded the app that was launched last year.

“It’s an ability for the patient to become more of a participant in their own health-care journey and I think there’s value to that …,” McLeod said.

“This is just one more piece within that program that allows people to access their information to give them peace of mind and inform their health-care journey as well as becoming an active participant, which of course again strengthens that relationship between them and their care provider.”

Maindonald agreed.

“The goal with MySaskHealthRecord is really to enable all of this type of information to be present for the patient to see it,” Maindonald said.

He said having the information enables patients to be part of the conversation with their caregivers.

“When patients like me can access medical information, it lets us become active participants in our own health care and reduces the anxiety that can come from not knowing,” Wendy Kopciuch, a patient family partner with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said in a media release.

“Having access to information about upcoming surgical procedures means I can have informed conversations with my health-care team, and also arrange my personal and professional life to accommodate my surgery date.”

Maindonald said the project cost $1.3 million. He said the site saw exceptional growth during the pandemic.

“We have a significant percentage of our population leveraging it,” he said. “I don’t have the specific numbers but we see quite a bit of use on a daily basis.”

He said people often use the site to gain access to lab results.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick