Saskatoon

Well, my week in Saskatoon has come to an end. I was greeted with a chilly wind. Monday morning we woke to the temperature being -47c with the wind. Who can say - BRRR!!!

This is my first week participating in the reabstracting study. I will be criss-crossing across Canada on this study - now if the schedule doesn't change between now and the end of March I will be visiting Saskatoon for a week - Halifax for a week - Regina for a week - Vancouver area for 2 weeks - Ottawa for 2 weeks and end with 2 weeks in Southern Ontario (Toronto/Hamilton area probably). I am hoping to find some time to either sightseeing or reconnecting with family and friends, during some of the spare time.

The staff here in Saskatoon were very nice to me and my coworker. One of the positive things about participating in these opportunities like reabstracting studies is to meet other Health Information Management Professionals (HIM professional). One of the commonalities you will find across Canada in our field - most departments are facing shortage of staff and finding our struggle to meet national coding deadlines due to the first reason. We (Calgary) is no exception. For me, it is nice knowing we are not alone in facing these struggles.

Through conversations over the week with the director - when she found out that not only do I code/abstract charts, but I also train and cross train coders at my facility in daysurgery and inpatient disciplines - she asked me if I would like to move to Saskatoon to that here - I smiled and nicely said no - I am quite happy in Calgary. I thought that was a nice compliment though. She asked to even exchange emails as it is nice to be able to ask a question of how we capture a similar procedures. The hospital I worked at this week is also a cardiac and trauma hospital similar to the Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

Up at 4am tomorrow as my first leg to Halifax leaves Saskatoon at 6am heading to Toronto and then onto Halifax. Saw on the weather network that Halifax just receive fresh dumping of snow.