Pilot project aims to address health record headaches for those living near Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary

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.”