The recently released Volume 2 of the Provincial Auditor's 2018 report highlighted the Saskatchewan Health Authority's analyzing and diagnosing of surgical biopsy results wait times.

According to her report, Judy Ferguson said biopsy wait times are too long and that the Saskatchewan Health Authority has not formally determined why.

With regard to surgical biopsy wait times in Moose Jaw, and using the month of November as an example, the SHA's VP of Provincial Programs, Corey Miller, said, "Anywhere from ten specimens to a high of twenty-three come in on a daily basis. Each is a little bit different but, in a smaller site, we don't really track each step because there are so few [specimens]. We just know they're all being processed the days they come in, other than on a weekend."

Miller said standardized processes are important, but that each lab is differently built and that the SHA is in the process of standardizing lab layouts and processes. Miller said SHA started a process-improvement initiative in May of this year, and that they've been working to address the biopsy-wait issue across Saskatchewan.

On what Moose Jaw and area residents can do to ensure shorter biopsy results wait times, Miller said, "I wouldn't say there's anything a person can do. In rural, there's no question there's more logistics to getting the specimen to the right place. If you're in a small community, there is a logistics of us getting that specimen to a pathology lab to get it processed. Sometimes that can take anywhere from one to four days. Certainly, logistics is a challenge for us."

Miller pointed out the laboratory process for the ordering physician does have a prioritization process built into it, and that some of the semi-urgent cases are not processed in the same way that urgent or emergent lab results are processed. "The preparation process is different, depending on the tissue and the type of biopsy it is," he said.

Read the report here.