Important Information on Health Apps & Virtual Health Care Providers
13-12-2023
**UPDATE**
Red Lake Hospital will now be able to provide services for lab and imaging requisitions that are obtained through TELUS Health MyCare.
With the ongoing physician shortage in our community, we have seen an increase in the use of health apps and “virtual docs.”
These online healthcare providers are able to provide virtual consultations to local patients and send prescriptions to our local pharmacy. However, please be advised that these providers cannot order tests / exams to our Hospital, unless they are credentialed here.
It is actually legislated that Hospital laboratories and imaging departments may only perform tests that are ordered by credentialed healthcare providers. A credentialed healthcare provider is someone who has been approved by our Hospital Board and entered into our electronic medical record system, after submitting proof of license and insurance, among other documents. Because we are a publicly funded facility, we must adhere to these regulations.
If you receive a requisition from a virtual healthcare provider for laboratory or diagnostic imaging procedures, these must be done at a private laboratory or imaging facility – unless you have confirmed with the healthcare provider that they are credentialed at our Hospital. Please be prepared to ask these questions of your health care provider, when using these virtual healthcare services.
We are currently looking into how we can streamline these processes and coordinate with these companies to credential at least one healthcare provider to authorize requisitions. However, until this is in place, information on private laboratory and imaging facilities can be found here:
https://myvisit.lifelabs.com/book-appointment/
https://www.tbmed.ca/contact