Voting opens on ‘common sense ideas’ to improve health-care system

After soliciting ideas from Nova Scotia health-care workers about how to improve the system, the public now has a chance to vote on what they think should become government priorities.

In October, Premier Tim Houston announced a contest for “common sense ideas” that would be easy to implement with little to no funding. A review panel narrowed 2,202 submissions down to 20 and voting is open until Jan. 8 to get to a final list of 10.

According to a government news release, the top 10 ideas will be considered priorities and officials will work to implement them “where feasible.”

The list includes ideas for how to more quickly and efficiently register patients and share their information among health-care workers, as well as ways to improve patients’ experiences when they’re at the hospital and increase online options for appointment bookings, cancellations and reminders.

The review panel selected the 20 ideas based on “cost and operational implications, the ability to implement them across the health-care system [and] the impact on patient care,” facility and workflow, according to the news release.

People can vote online for up to three ideas, with results to be announced at the end of next month.

Everyone who made a submission to the contest was entered in a random raffle for 50 prizes of $1,000 each. The raffle took place earlier this month.