Saskatchewan Yellow Sleeve Program: How to Store Your Advance Directive for EMS

You've signed your health care directive. Your proxy knows they're named. Your treatment preferences are documented. None of it helps if paramedics responding to your home emergency can't find the document.

That's the specific problem the Saskatchewan Health Authority's Yellow Sleeve program solves — and it's one of the most practical advance care planning tools in Canada, even if it sounds almost too simple.

What the Yellow Sleeve Is

It's a high-visibility yellow plastic sleeve — literally a bright yellow pocket — that you attach to the outside of your refrigerator. Inside the sleeve, you place a printed copy of your signed health care directive and your proxy appointment information.

EMS crews in Saskatchewan are trained to check the fridge for the Yellow Sleeve when they respond to a home call. The fridge works as a universal, predictable location: every home has one, it's always in the kitchen, and it's easy to find under time pressure.

The sleeve itself is available from the Saskatchewan Health Authority through their Advance Care Planning portal — many SHA facilities, home care offices, and community health centres distribute them for free.

What Goes Inside the Sleeve

At minimum:

• A printed copy of your signed health care directive
• Your proxy's name and contact information (phone number, relationship)
• The SHA Proxy Wallet Card (form SHA 0304) for quick reference

If you've completed a Goals of Care Designation with your physician, include that as well. The GCD translates your directive's preferences into clinical medical orders — specifying your level of intervention (full resuscitation, medical management, or comfort care only) — and gives the EMS crew actionable clinical instructions rather than a legal document they need to interpret on the spot.

Why Digital Isn't Enough

Saskatchewan also offers digital registration through MySaskHealthRecord, where you can upload a PDF of your directive and share it with the provincial eHR Viewer. That digital system is excellent for hospital admissions — attending physicians, nurse practitioners, and ER staff can access your directive the moment you're admitted.

But EMS crews responding to a 911 call at your home often cannot access the digital portal in the field. They're working under time pressure, potentially without reliable internet access (especially in rural Saskatchewan), and the portal requires authentication they may not have. The Yellow Sleeve gives them immediate physical access to your directive without any login or data connection.

The two systems are complementary, not interchangeable:

Setting Up MySaskHealthRecord

To register digitally:

1. Create an account on the MySaskHealthRecord website using your Saskatchewan Health Card and SGI driver's licence
2. Navigate to the Health Care Directives section
3. Upload a clear PDF scan of your signed directive
4. Select the "shared with eHR Viewer" setting — this is the step people miss; without it, the document sits in your personal portal and no medical professional can see it

Registration is free. The upload doesn't make your directive legally valid (it's valid from the moment you sign it), but it makes the directive accessible to clinical teams across the province.

The Critical Detail Most People Miss

The Yellow Sleeve only works if EMS knows it's there. Tell your family members, neighbours, and your proxy where the sleeve is. If you live alone, the sleeve is even more important — it may be the only source of information about your medical wishes when paramedics arrive.

Similarly, the MySaskHealthRecord upload only works if you enable sharing. A surprising number of people upload their directive and assume it's accessible, but the default sharing setting doesn't automatically push the document to the eHR Viewer. You need to explicitly turn on sharing.

Keep It Updated

When you revoke and replace your directive — after a new diagnosis, a change in proxy, or updated treatment preferences — swap the document in your Yellow Sleeve and replace the file in MySaskHealthRecord. An outdated directive on your fridge is worse than no directive at all if it names a proxy who's no longer appropriate or documents treatment preferences you've since changed.

The Saskatchewan Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes printable Yellow Sleeve inserts, a MySaskHealthRecord upload checklist, and a distribution tracker so you know exactly who has a copy of your current directive and where every copy is stored.

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