Alberta residents will now have access to many of their own files medical records online through a new Alberta government program called MyHealth Records.
    The records are available to Alberta residents through any computer, tablet or Smartphone. Residents are able to look up records such as medications dispensed through a pharmacist, immunizations, results of common lab tests and will have the ability to print these out and share with health care providers.
    Dr. Rithesh Ram sees this as a step forward. “In my mind, it is a long time coming… it is part and parcel of the province-wide Connect Care coming, they always said this would have a patient portal,” he said. “It is a great feature. There are a lot of details in there very specifically related to the patient.”
    He says the program also allows patients to be active in their health, such as the ability to keep health journals tracking sleep, mood, weight and fitness goals, upload and track information such as blood pressure or blood glucose monitoring results.
    “It is a big step in the province compared to what we had a few weeks ago,” he said.
    He explains the information on MyHealth Records comes from the province-wide database called NetCare.
    He said it can be helpful for patients going to see the doctor. “I think it is going to be wonderful, but our whole take on wanting patients to be active in their health and wanting to be their own advocate, but I can guarantee there is an entire group of providers who may not like this as much because the patients will see the results and question them and want to get in and see their provider,” said Dr. Ram. “We may know these are not urgent health issues but to the patient, there is no reason they shouldn’t know the inner details of each lab result they might have but there will be some providers who might not want to be ‘bothered’ with having to deal with this.”
    He adds there will also be a provider portal coming that may also help support the program.   
    To sign up or to find out more about MyHealth Records, visit Alberta.ca/MyHealthRecords. A support phone line (1-844-401-4016) is also available to help users sign up and use the service. Users will also have the option to connect with Health Link (811) to speak with a registered nurse should they have any questions about the health information found on MyHealth Records.

McDonald’s wants its McCustomers to be more McCareful when they are redeeming their McCafe Rewards.

The McCafe Rewards Program is popular amongst the coffee crowd at the restaurant. A customer simply collects seven stickers from their coffee cups, affixes them to the redemption card and collect their free coffee.

The issue is that often the stickers are not always attached within the squares provided on the card. Owner of the McDonald’s in Drumheller, Greg Manca, says they often see the stickers out of line, upside down and even on the back of the card. The issue is these rewards eventually need to be verified for inventory.

“It seems like an insignificant detail, however, these cards need to be verified,” he explains. “There has been a number rejected. Sometimes because the stickers are upside down, not in the area, or they have become unattached.”

When the cards are not readily verifiable, the local McDonald’s will have difficulty in maintaining their inventory.

    There is anywhere from a 6 to10 per cent rejection rate each month. While to this point McDonald’s has been accepting the cards. Avril Bromista, McCafe promotions, prairie region says starting April 1, the cards will be more carefully scrutinized.

“Eventually the card’s verification process will be automated. When this is implemented, hopefully, customers will be affixing the sticker properly and there will be no issues. We appreciated that customers are enthusiastic about the McCafé program and will continue to enjoy our hot beverages,” she said.

These changes will not affect customers who use the McCafe Rewards App, or those who appreciate a good April Fool’s joke.