A new Alberta government pilot project is hoping to address a common challenge facing citizens accessing health care in a city that straddles two provinces.
Imagine you’re a rural Albertan travelling to the nearest city for a health-care appointment with a specialist. You clear your schedule to drive more than 200 kilometres — one way. You pay for gas. You pay for parking at the hospital.
You sit in the waiting room. You’re seen for your appointment. You complete all the testing and can now go home, which requires another 200-kilometre trip.
Now imagine your family doctor can’t see the results of those tests.
K.C. Hull lives on the Alberta side of Lloydminster, a city that straddles the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. She said she is all too familiar with the experience, and she’s not alone.
Many others living in and around the city are accustomed to the challenges the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary can pose when it comes to health care.
“It’s an uphill battle all the time,” Hull said.
Her family doctor practises on the Saskatchewan side of Lloydminster. But as an Alberta resident with a number of health issues, she said she is often referred to specialists in Edmonton.
Hull said those specialists can’t access records of care received in Saskatchewan. And unless she specifically requests it, results from care received in Alberta don’t go to her family doctor. And even when she does ask, she said there are still problems.
“It doesn’t always happen, and then you end up with a mess,” said Hull. “It either gets sent to them, or they’re clueless.
“It’s costing the taxpayers money, because tests have to be done twice; if they can’t find the results, they have to order the test again.”
Stories like Hull’s were the driving force behind the Alberta government’s pilot project launching in Lloydminster this January. The program will allow Saskatchewan-based doctors and pharmacists view-only access to Netcare, Alberta’s electronic health record system.
Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright MLA Garth Rowswell said tackling the medical file-sharing problems in the border city has been on his agenda since he was first elected in 2019.
“It’s been an issue for, I’ll say decades,” he told CBC News. “It’s been forever.”
So, why the wait?
In 2020, then-health minister Tyler Shandro introduced Bill 46, which contained amendments aimed at broadening access to Netcare outside of provincial borders.
Concerns were raised by Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner, which stalled the bill’s progression. After five years of work, the pilot project is becoming a reality as a result of recent amendments to Alberta’s Health Information Act and the Alberta Electronic Health Record Regulation.
In an emailed statement, Alberta’s Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services said one community pharmacy and one physician’s office will be onboarded to start, before expanding to more providers, including nurse practitioners and registered nurses.
All providers must meet Alberta’s privacy, security and regulatory requirements before being onboarded, and will be given “role-based, read-only access appropriate to their professional scope,” reads the statement.
Rowswell said in the future, he hopes to see the project be expanded to other communities like Cold Lake and Medicine Hat, where many patients cross the border for health care.
The Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services told CBC News no decisions on further expanding the pilot project have been made at this time.
Paul Richer, chair of the Lloydminster and District Health Advisory Council, has been pushing for such an initiative for years and said he’s excited it’s now moving forward.
While he’s glad to get a major priority crossed off his to-do list, he said he is expecting a health needs assessment report in the coming months to identify more gaps and — hopefully — solutions.
“What’s going to be important is that — because time is of the essence and we’re not getting any younger — is that it doesn’t sit, that we push the government to go with those next steps,” said Richer.
Hull said she believes the change is a positive one but added the issue of file sharing in Lloydminster is only half-solved for residents like her.
“It does not help when you’re an Alberta resident and all your records are Saskatchewan [records], and Alberta doctors can’t see the Saskatchewan results,” she said. “It’s almost like you’re penalized for living in Lloyd.
“If you were in Vermilion, for instance, your records would be all Alberta.”
Lloydminster’s only hospital is located on the Saskatchewan side. According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Alberta residents must request records after receiving care in the hospital. Requests come with a $20 fee, but for a number of different reasons, the cost can often be waived for Alberta residents.
