More information about ultrasound reports is now available on the YourHealthNS app. (Communications Nova Scotia)
Nova Scotians can now see more information from their ultrasound reports on the YourHealthNS app.
Scans completed from Aug. 5 onward were available as of Monday. The report includes the body part examined, the reason for the scan, findings and a comparison with any previous ultrasounds.
Results will be available 14 days after the ultrasound.
The reports will add to the information like date, time and location of the scan currently available through the app. Images won’t be available, according to a news release from Nova Scotia Health.
In July, the province expanded access to the health records in the app to everybody across the province, who are 16 and older with a valid Nova Scotia health card.
More than 309,000 ultrasounds were performed in Nova Scotia in 2023.
Nova Scotia Health staff are calling people on the need-a-family-practice registry to make sure they still need a primary care provider. (Pixabay)
A group of 40 student recruits has started calling Nova Scotians to see if they still need a family doctor.
And with more than 160,000 people across Nova Scotia on the need-a-family-practice registry, it’s going to be a busy summer.
Noella Whelan, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network for Nova Scotia Health, is heading up the project.
She said the department did a similar telephone campaign last summer, when more than 152,000 were on the list. That resulted in more than 21,000 people identified who could be struck from the waitlist. It also resulted in 6,000 people being assigned a primary care provider.
“Our systems are not automated so it relies on the individuals that put their name on the list to take their names off the list,” she told QCCR.
“This is a more proactive mechanism for us to reach out to individuals and determine if they have already been connected to a primary care practice in Nova Scotia. And so often we do find that there are individuals that have been connected to a primary care provider who are still on the list.”
Whelan said they doubled the number of temporary staff making calls this summer, from 20 last year. She said there are about 10 other permanent Nova Scotia Health employees on the project in supervisory and co-ordinator roles. Hiring the student recruits will cost about $532,000, according to a Nova Scotia Health spokeswoman.
“We have heard from patients and families the concern about where to go for care,” Whelan said. “So we want to make sure we’re connecting with folks to understand, do they need a primary care provider? Do we have their contact information so that when we reach out to them do we have accurate information? … Out of the campaign last summer there were a number of tools developed to help individuals understand where to go for care. We just want to make sure that those that are waiting know where to access care.”
Operators will also be confirming with people whether their doctor has retired. Whelan says the department doesn’t always know if a general practitioner has retired.
“We want to make sure we’ve confirmed that and are able to then connect them to a primary care provider when one becomes available.”
Whelan says the project will also give Nova Scotia Health a chance to tell people where else they can access care while they wait for a doctor or nurse practitioner. Staff will also remind people to fill out the health questionnaire on the need-a-family-practice registration site. People can also use that form to remove themselves from the registry.
“I think it is money well spent. Certainly we’ve heard from the public, from patients’ families that they want a more direct contact with the system to understand how to navigate services.”
Calls will show up as either unknown name and number or from a blocked caller.
Staff won’t ask for any personal information besides the last four digits of your Nova Scotia health card and your birth date.
They will also ask for confirmation of your phone number and physical and email addresses.
“If they do receive a call and they are not able to respond, if we have their email on file, we’ll send them an email, and say, ‘We’ve attempted to call you, please call us back. Or we’ll make a call at this time during the next day or so.’ That way, Nova Scotians will know this is a legitimate initiative.”
Whelan said in the first week of calls, they haven’t had many people refuse to answer to give information.
“The students are just in a week or so of calls, so most folks are engaging in conversation and able to verify it is Nova Scotia Health calling. We certainly do have a few (refusals), but we expect that anyway.”
Nova Scotia Health will be calling people over the next several weeks to verify that they’re still looking for a primary care provider. (Pixabay)
If you’re one of the 1,100 people in Queens County still looking for a primary care provider, you may be getting a call from Nova Scotia Health.
Officials will be phoning people on the need-a-family-practice registry over the next several weeks to confirm whether they’re still looking for a doctor or nurse practitioner.
According to a release from Nova Scotia Health, people will be called from either a blocked number, one they don’t recognize or an unknown name and number.
Staff won’t ask you to provide any personal information besides the last four digits of your Nova Scotia health card and your birth date.
They will also ask for confirmation of your phone number and physical and email addresses.
According to the news release, this is so that the department can contact people when a doctor or nurse practitioner is available to take new patients.
Health staff will also be calling people who added their name to the list because their provider told them they’d be retiring. This is to confirm whether their doctor retired.
The registry hasn’t been updated since June 1. According to CBC News, opposition politicians this week accused the government of withholding up-to-date numbers on how many people still need a doctor or nurse practitioner.
As of June 1, 160,234 Nova Scotians were still on the registry. About 10 per cent of Queens County residents are still looking for a primary care provider. That compares to about 23 per cent of the population in the Bridgewater area.
QCCR will have an interview on Friday with Noella Whalen, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network with Nova Scotia Health. Whalen is leading the project.
Michelle Thompson, Nova Scotia’s health and wellness minister, announces at a news conference on Wednesday that the YourHealthNS app will be expanded to all Nova Scotians over 16. (Communications Nova Scotia via Zoom)
The Nova Scotia government is expanding access to a $15-million smartphone app that lets patients see their own medical records.
The government gave early access to 13,824 patients in six clinics around the province from January to April to the YourHealthNS app. One of those clinics was Queens Family Health in Liverpool.
After gathering feedback from users in the pilot, it announced Wednesday that anyone over 16 with a valid Nova Scotia health card can now download the app and access its features.
The biggest draw of the app is the ability for people to access their own medical records, prescriptions, lab and test results and immunizations. It also allows you to see your hospital, clinic or other medical appointments.
Patients can also schedule some appointments through the app.
Michelle Thompson is Nova Scotia’s health and wellness minister. She said the app helps give Nova Scotians control over their own health care.
“We started small with a test-and-try approach, but the results were huge,” Thompson said at a Wednesday news conference. “Those who used it liked it. It improved their health care experience, gave them more control over their care, but most importantly, it put health care back in their hands.
“You can now carry your medical history in your pocket wherever you go.”
Officials with Nova Scotia Health told reporters at a technical briefing that more than 300,000 Nova Scotians have already downloaded the app.
Of the pilot project participants, 98 per cent said they would continue to use the app, while 30 per cent said they felt they didn’t need to see their primary care provider because they had access to their records.
Officials could not say how many people actually used the app. They said that because of privacy concerns, they did not track individual users and how they used the app. The information came from a voluntary feedback survey in the app. Officials did not know how many people responded to the survey.
“We know from our evaluation here but also from other jurisdictions around the world, this empowers patients,” said Dr. Aaron Smith, medical executive director, Northern Zone, and provincial medical executive director.
“This allows patients to manage their own health. And the impact on providers is also profound. We know folks feel more engaged in their health, they better understand their health. It allows a significant numbers of folks to avoid unnecessary visits to both emergency department and primary care facilities. It allows physicians to really focus on what they need to do, which is care of acutely ill people.”
The YourHealthNS app has cost the government $15 million in total, with $2 million of that spent on the pilot project and another $3 million for the rollout to all of Nova Scotia.
Officials said Wednesday that protecting people’s privacy was one of their primary concerns.
“We are ensuring that people’s information is safe and citizens can see their own information and other than a few folks who will do audit functions to ensure everything is fine, there will be nobody else that can see that information,” Thompson said.
During the pilot phase, some participants in Queens County said that they either had no information available or the information they saw changed from day to day. Others said they could see all their records.
Scott McKenna, chief information officer for Nova Scotia Health, said that everybody should be able to see their health records now.
“Those are the lessons we’ve learned from the pilot. Now we’ve matched records a little bit differently, put some new algorithms in place to make sure we’re matching records based with a high level of confidence on health card number and date of birth. … Those individuals would see their health records now.”
Thompson said she’s confident that people will see information that’s reliable and up to date.
“The point of a test and try is that we bring individuals into the pilot. We understand the technology, we understand the interface with the people who are using the technology and we build on their feedback and their experience.
“We’re very grateful to those initial pilot participants. It really gave us the opportunity to understand the app, build the app, get their feedback, see what the experience was and move on from there. And so I feel very confident in the team and their ability to continue to deliver the iterations of this app. And I do believe the app will be of huge benefit to Nova Scotians.”
More records like primary care visits with doctors, nurse practitioners or through pharmacy clinics will be added over the coming months, Thompson said, with the goal of having all of that information available by the end of September.
The emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed at various times this weekend. (Communications Nova Scotia)
The emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed at 1:30 p.m. on Friday until 8 a.m. Sat., June 29
It will close again at 1:30 p.m. on Sun., June 30 and reopen Mon., July 1 at 8 a.m.
The ER at South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater will be open.
Nova Scotia Health advises people experiencing a medical emergency to call 911. For general health advice, people can contact 811 to speak to a registered nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Patients of Queens Family Health can call the same-day clinic through the week for new and emerging conditions at 902-354-3322. Hours are based on provider availability.
The emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed at various times over this week. (Communications Nova Scotia)
Here is when the emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed over the next week:
from 1:30 p.m. Wed., May 22, to Thurs., May 23 at 8 a.m.
from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fri., May 24
from 5 a.m. Sat., May 25 to Sun., May 26 at 8 a.m.
from 1:30 p.m. Tues., May 28 to Wed., May 29 at 8 a.m.
Nova Scotia Health advises people with urgent medical needs to call 911. Patients of Queens Family Health can access the same-day clinic from Monday to Friday by calling 902-354-3322. Clinic hours are based on staff availability.
The ER at South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater will be open.
Low-income Nova Scotians being treated for cancer and dealing with hair loss can get a $300 rebate toward the cost of a wig. (Communications Nova Scotia)
Nova Scotians going through cancer treatment can be reimbursed $300 if they buy a wig to help deal with hair loss.
To be eligible, people must be a Nova Scotia resident with a valid health card, have a gross family income of $35,000 a year or less, be enrolled in the drug assistance for cancer patients program and have no private insurance that covers the cost of a wig.
“A cancer diagnosis is scary enough,” Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson said in a news release Thursday.
The government estimates about 360 patients could be eligible for the one-time rebate, which will cost about $110,000.
The province also provides a rebate for mastectomy breast prostheses and two programs that support low-income cancer patients – the boarding, transportation and ostomy programs, and the drug assistance for cancer patients.
