Shared Client Index (Client Registry)

The Saskatchewan Health Information Solutions Centre has undertaken the client registry project, called the Shared Client Index, with the support of Canada Health Infoway. The Shared Client Index will provide automated matching of identifiers and demographics from various provincial and regional health sources to provide a single source of integrated, timely, identity information automatically through electronic messaging.

The Saskatchewan Shared Client Index will be the trusted and timely source to confidently, accurately, securely and uniquely identify all persons who have contact with the health care system in Saskatchewan regardless of service, location, residency and / or insurance coverage. As a fundamental building block of the electronic health record, this unique identification from the client registry will support the ability to link health records from various locations and sources. This identity management will ultimately enable providers to have integrated clinical results from the hospitals, community clinics, offices, home care and ambulance.

The major stakeholders involved and affected by the SCI project are the Registration business staff in a health region/Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA), the Health Records staff in a health region/SCA, the Ministry of Health Registration & Vital Statistics, and the Registry Services staff at HISC as the current users of the SCI applications. Other users in the health regions may include public health, home care, ambulatory programs and lab departments. Change management strategies are used to engage stakeholders actively in working groups so that the SCI program is based on their Best Practice decisions and discussions. Training for front line staff is supported through HISC Registry Services and is currently resourced through the project funding. Health Regions/SCA stakeholders are reimbursed for time and travel for working group meetings.

A shared governance framework is used to provide roles and responsibilities across organizations for their shared accountability to manage the data and the SCI program appropriately. The Health business owner is the HISC EHR Data Manager responsible for the HISC Registries Services.

The CIOs and IT staff in health regions/SCA, the HISC operating staff for centrally hosted applications, and the emerging Electronic Health Record repositories project staff (Lab, Drug, and DI) are involved and affected by the SCI technology implementation.