Saskatoon medical simulation centre aims to help patient safety

Watch above: medical simulation centre first of its kind in Saskatchewan

SASKATOON – For almost any scenario you can think of, healthcare professionals in Saskatchewan can now simulate it.

Jan Hiebert and Shelly Luhning worked for years together in the emergency department at Royal University Hospital but it wasn’t until reconnecting at SIAST that they came up with the idea for the Saskatoon Institute for Medical Simulation (SIMS).

“We develop things that we’ve been through as healthcare practitioners, so we customize it as well, if the trainees want something that maybe they’ve dealt with in the past we can recreate that,” said Shelly Luhning, SIMS co-founder and COO.

According to a Canadian Adverse Events study, preventable medical errors claim about 28,000 Canadians yearly. SIMS is hoping to decrease that number.

“Any time your going to start a new business or a new journey, it’s about finding where the gaps are, finding out where the needs are and seeing how we can fill them and we certainly do think we’re going to fill that patient safety gap,” said Jan Hiebert, SIMS co-founder and CEO.

SIMS has been in operation since January and already has a number of health regions in the province on board including Saskatoon.

SIMS doesn’t just hold training in house; it provides the education across Saskatchewan.

“It’s hands on, it meets their level of practice and clinical relevance and they walk out learning more then just the content, they learn how to apply it how to transfer it and they get refreshers how to do that well,” said Dr. Paul Olszynski, an emergency physician with Saskatoon Health Region .

“We can take all kinds of courses whether it’s online or in the classroom and this is just another avenue to make us that much better for the community,” said assistant fire Morgan Hackl with Saskatoon Fire Department.

SIMS offers a full list of course offerings.