Patti Shirkey and Laurie Albinet from the Five Hills Health Region

Moose Jaw residents and those from surrounding areas will now have another location to access lab services, bringing the total to three community-based locations for patients in Moose Jaw and the surrounding areas to utilize.

Regional Director of Diagnostic Imaging for Five Hills Health Region, Patti Shirkey.

"From listening to the voice of our patients we heard that they wanted broader access to lab services. With the opening of Crescent View, we were able to open up a lab area so patients can now present there to have their blood work or other services done there."

Shirkey says that the opportunity was right with the renovation of the clinic to open up lab services to the public.

"With the downtown location that they were asking for, because in the fall we are moving our hospital based lab services up to the new hospital, which is on the north end of town. When we looked at the city as a whole, we decided that was something we'd have to look at would be to offer that service to people downtown."

Laurie Albinet, Vice President of Clinical Services with Five Hills Health Region, says they were able to provide these services with convenient hours.

"Most people want to get to the lab early, either before work or if you have fasting blood work, you can't eat or drink for 12 hours, so they want to get that out of the way to get their day started. The only way to do this was to open the clinic at 7:30 A.M."

Albinet says that patients were voicing desires for a downtown location, and having lab services at the clinic will make it easier for patients to access them.