Nova Scotia government reveals top 10 voted health-care improvements, says it will work to implement them

The Nova Scotia government says it will work to make the top 10 ideas from the Health-care Improvement Challenge a reality. 

On Monday, the Health Department revealed the results of the online survey, which saw 8,722 people vote on the short list of 20 ideas to improve Nova Scotia’s health-care system. 

According to the results, the top 10 ideas (in order) are: 

1. A no-show or missed appointment is an appointment someone else could use to receive care. Set up a text notification system that reminds patients of their appointment date, time and location.

2. Provide patients the option to receive appointment letters by email instead of posted mail. This would save money, reduce no-shows and missed appointments, and reduce waste.

3. Allow for audiologists to send direct referrals to ear, nose and throat physicians instead of making patients go to their primary care provider (family doctor or nurse practitioner) to get this referral.

4. Support continuing care assistants to work to their full scope of practice (for example, let them take vitals). This change would reduce the pressure on nurses who can spend that time providing better patient care.

5. Install screens or monitors in all emergency departments that show publicly available wait times, public health information, and other related information about what a patient should expect in the emergency department.

6. Enable hospital caller ID so patients can see when the hospital calls. Many people don’t answer unknown numbers, and if the patient doesn’t list their name in their voicemail, a message can’t be left. This creates delays in patient services.

7. Stop using emergency departments for pre-operative bloodwork for patients scheduled to have a Monday morning procedure. It creates added pressure in emergency departments. Instead, offer them priority bloodwork appointments before the weekend.

8. Allow patients to pre-register online by sending them a link to fill out a form in advance of their surgery or specialist appointment. This will make intake for nurses working in clinics or pre-operative settings faster.

9. Develop a registration app. Patients enter their information and it generates a QR code. Clerks can scan this on arrival for their appointment. It would save time, remove data coding errors and could be linked with the new e-referral initiative.

10. If you can book a diagnostic imaging appointment (MRI, ultrasound, etc.) online, you should be able to cancel online. Give patients the option to cancel these appointments online.

“The people who know our health-care system best told us what common sense, low-cost and easy-to-implement improvements we could make, and Nova Scotians chose they felt would have the biggest impact,” Premier Tim Houston said in a news release. 

“The votes are in and now it’s time for us to get to work to make them happen.” 

The contest was launched in October. The more than 2,200 submissions from health-care providers and others with jobs in the health-care field were whittled down to a shortlist of 20, which saw 20,392 votes between Dec. 20 and Jan. 8. Eligible submissions were to be entered into a random draw for up to 50 prizes of $1,000. 

While the other 10 ideas on the shortlist didn’t make the cut, the Nova Scotia government said they may still be considered. 

The provincial government did not give a timeline on when the initiatives would be rolled out, but said it is working with health-system partners to implement them “where feasible.”