Lindsey Page
Health Records Technician, Whitehorse General Hospital
CHIMA BCYT Chapter Chair

Lindsey Page moved to the Yukon when she was eight. Although she loved it, like many of her peers, she moved south after high school to go to school but found herself returning to the north after completing a degree in early childhood development. She wanted to do something in a helping field, but admits she was quite stuck about what specifically she might do. She applied for a job advertised in the local newspaper for an admitting and discharge clerk at the Whitehorse General Hospital. On her very first day, working with a 20-year veteran in the field who “embodied everything I thought a health professional was,” Lindsey thought to herself, “This is where I need to be.”

Ten years later, Lindsey is still there. She eventually moved to the health records department and, today, works as part of a team of three who code for three different hospitals. When asked what she does, Lindsey always says, “I play a role in telling the story of people’s health journey so that they can have the best quality of care, whether that is as they move through the hospital, go to their family doctor, or are medevacked to a larger facility.”

One of Lindsey’s favourite expressions says: if there’s no passion, it’s just a job. Lindsey is passionate about her work, saying, “We don’t submit until our data is accurate and reliable.” Being part of CHIMA, she says, has also fueled her passion. “We can be very isolated, and being part of CHIMA helps me know I’m part of something bigger. Working with people who do similar work in different contexts helps me learn new ideas I can bring to our work. I hope others get something from me too. CHIMA has given me a chance to invest in myself through great professional and personal development and a sense of belonging.”

But the work can be challenging. “Especially in a small community like Whitehorse, sad things can happen to people you know—things that bring them to the hospital,” says Lindsey. “It can be emotionally draining, even if you aren’t right on the front lines of patient care.” For this reason, Lindsey deliberately cultivates self-care by hiking or sea kayaking with her husband and friends in her community, volunteering as a greeter at her hospital to stay in touch with patients and to encourage her own sense of empathy, and laughing with colleagues across the country. She tells a story of talking with a CHIMA friend in northern Ontario who said she had a cold. Lindsey replied, in code they both knew well, “J11.”