Barcodes come to Siksika Nation Health system

Times Contributor

 

In a continuation to upgrade the health care system at Siksika Nation, early last fall the CHIP (Community Health and Immunization Program) was introduced to help with immunization tracking of First Nations Peoples on and off the reserve.

The newest innovation will be the implementing of the GS1 bar code standard on commercially available vaccines to improve their management and delivery as a key component of Canada’s National Immunization Strategy. The Siksika and Stoney health centers will be among the first in the world to use vaccine barcode scanning to automatically record information, such as the vaccine type, lot number, dose and expiry date at the time of vaccination. This is expected to eliminate data entry error, which has been shown to be as high as 20 per cent in registries that rely on manual inputting. 

“This initiative is an example of First Nations leading in innovation and partnership, and setting the bar for the rest of the health system,” says Tyler White, CEO of Siksika Health Services.

Siksika and Stoney First Nations were the first to join the Community Health & Immunization Program (CHIP), a flexible, secure and simple system for electronically managing patients’ vaccination records. 

“CHIP was developed to address a longstanding public health disparity. First Nations in Alberta have high rates of patients under- and over-immunized because of an incomplete, inaccurate, and antiquated approach to vaccination records,” says Dr. Salim Samanani, Medical Director of OKAKI, which created CHIP in partnership with First Nations communities. “With the addition of 2D bar code scanning, we continue to approach the goal of creating the safest, most effective and cutting edge immunization program for the protection of child and public health.”

Siksika Nation continues to be a front runner for many innovative ideas and programs to better the Health services for first Nations people.