A few changes to booking process for AHS lab on Carry Drive

If you’ve had difficulty arranging an appointment with the Alberta Health Services Carry Drive Laboratory collections site in Medicine Hat, there have been some changes.

“On February 16, 2021 the Medicine Hat and Brooks Laboratories patient collection services updated the appointment system to a new phone number. The impacted locations are the Brooks Collection Lab, Carry Drive Collection Site and Medicine Regional Hat Hospital Outpatient Lab,” a spokesperson for AHS confirmed in an email Thursday.

To book an appointment patients need to use a new system online at: www. APLappointments.ca, or call a new number for Alberta Precision Laboratory at 1-833-572-0577.

“The previous booking number is no longer in service and will direct you to call the new number,” said an

AHS spokesperson.

The News tried the website booking option online and the phone number on Thursday afternoon. Both systems appeared to be experiencing a high volume of traffic. It was not possible to get through to a person on the telephone and neither was the booking page for Medicine Hat appointments accessible.

“The change supports the provincial initiative to standardize processes and create efficiencies by reducing variance in the software programs and the IT resources required to support them while enhancing the patient experience,” a statement from AHS communications reads.

AHS has plans to switch AHS labs to private contractors and in early December issued a RFP (Request For Proposals).

AHS did not respond to a question about whether the province’s centralized booking and phone number is a process to facilitate the private contractors that are to be put in place.

Contracts following the RFP are expected to be awarded this spring with a full transition to take place in 2022, AHS has previously stated.