Saskatchewan Health Authority

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is the largest organization in Saskatchewan, responsible for delivering safe, high-quality healthcare to more than one million citizens. With over 40,000 employees spread across the province, SHA operates at a scale where clarity, consistency, and access to accurate information are essential, both for the public and for internal teams.

At a critical organizational moment, SHA was tasked with amalgamating 12 former Saskatchewan Health Regions into a single authority. While the organizational structure had formally unified, the digital experience had not. Twelve regional websites and multiple intranet systems, built on different technologies and governed independently, created fragmentation, duplicated effort, and inconsistent information. This disconnect became especially urgent during a global pandemic, when timely, trustworthy communication was mission-critical.

SHA engaged zu to help design and deliver a unified digital platform capable of supporting this transformation. The challenge extended beyond technical consolidation. It required aligning diverse stakeholder groups, reconciling thousands of pages of content, and creating an experience that empowered users to find what they needed quickly, without unnecessary barriers.

The work began with extensive discovery and engagement. zu conducted one-on-one stakeholder interviews, gathered thousands of public survey responses, and facilitated co-design workshops across the organization. This process surfaced not only structural issues, but a shared desire for simplicity, accessibility, and user self-sovereignty: the ability for people to navigate health information confidently on their own terms.

These insights shaped a single guiding principle: unification without friction. The solution replaced fragmented regional systems with one centralized digital experience platform, consolidating content, governance, and publishing workflows while reducing duplication across teams. A comprehensive content audit ensured that only accurate, clinically reviewed information carried forward, strengthening trust and consistency across the province.

Design decisions emphasized inclusivity and ease of use. Building on SHA’s existing brand, the new platform uses plain language, clear typography, welcoming imagery, and accessible layouts to serve a broad and diverse audience. Unnecessary logins were eliminated for non-sensitive content, reinforcing the site’s role as a self-serve resource for citizens and staff alike.

Under the hood, a centralized Drupal CMS introduced tiered permissions, streamlined authoring, and interconnected content, dramatically improving publishing efficiency and reducing administrative burden. What once required significant coordination across regions became a shared, scalable system.

The result is a foundational digital platform that supports SHA’s unified mandate. By bringing structure, clarity, and accessibility to a complex ecosystem, the work helped align people, processes, and information, ensuring Saskatchewan’s healthcare system can communicate with confidence, consistency, and care.