Alberta Health Services

Alberta Health Services
Type Health Care
Industry Health care
Founded May 2008
Founder(s) Government of Alberta
Headquarters Edmonton, Alberta
Area served Alberta
Key people Minister of Health
Health Board
President & CEO
Employees 90,000 (2010)
Website albertahealthservices.ca

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the province-wide organization responsible for providing hospital and other health care in the Canadian province of Alberta. Known as the "superboard",[1] it was created in May 2008, with the abolition of nine previous regional health authorities, the Alberta Mental Health Board, the Alberta Cancer Board and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.[2][3] It is the largest provider of health care in Canada, Alberta's largest employer (with about 90,000 staff) and the 5th largest employer in Canada. Health services in Alberta have been reorganized a number of times, with successively fewer separate public organizational entities.[4][5][6][7]

Alberta Health Services' strategic direction articulates three broad goals (access, quality and sustainability) which expand into eight 'areas of focus' (e.g. improving access, fit for the future, learning and improving) and 20 strategic priorities.

The formal structure of Alberta Health Services separates acute hospital facilities (with separate reporting lines for major tertiary, metropolitan and regional hospitals) from smaller hospitals and community services, the latter organized into five zones (North, Edmonton, Central, Calgary and South). The Calgary Zone, for example, includes some sites and services formerly administered by the Calgary Health Region while other services have been reorganized on a provincial scale.

Contents

Leadership

Edmonton-based Dr. Stephen Duckett[8] was the inaugural President and Chief Executive Officer of Alberta Health Services, taking up the role on 23 March 2009. He was replaced on 23 November 2010 by Dr. Chris Eagle. The Alberta Health Services board includes several notables including Eldon Smith OC, MD, FRCPC.

Employees

Alberta Health Services employs 90,000 staff, including clinical, administrative and support personnel across the province. Staff belong to a variety of professional organizations and associations, including United Nurses of Alberta,[9] several locals of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees,[10] and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.[11]

Facilities

Main article: List of hospitals in Alberta

AHS maintains and runs a number of different types of facilities.[12] These include:

Edmonton

The Alberta Health Services Corporate Office is located in Seventh Street Plaza. Edmonton Zone comprises territory formerly administered by the Capital Health Region and includes eight acute care sites (hospitals) in the metropolitan area, which include: University of Alberta Hospital (Edmonton), Royal Alexandra Hospital (Edmonton), Grey Nuns Hospital (Edmonton), Misericordia Community Hospital (Edmonton), Sturgeon Community Hospital (St. Albert), Leduc Community Hospital (Leduc), WestView Health Centre (Stony Plain), and Fort Saskatchewan Health Centre (Fort Saskatchewan).

Calgary

The Calgary Zone administrative offices are located in the Southland Park business complex. Calgary Zone comprises territory formerly administered by the former Calgary Health Region and includes four major acute care sites (hospitals) including Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Children's Hospital, Peter Lougheed Centre and Rockyview General Hospital.

Rural

A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. They include[13]

EMS Services

In addition to primary in patient care, AHS took over responsibility for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from the municipalities on 1 April 2009, making ground ambulances a provincial responsibility rather than a civic one.[14] Provincial air ambulance transitioned to AHS in April 2010.[15] Also included in the provincial model of EMS are inter-facility hospital transfers, and EMS dispatch. In total, EMS serves a population of 3.5 million in an area of 660,000 square kilometres.

In 2010, EMS averaged about 400,000 ambulance events annually, with approximately 30% of these being patient transfers between health care facilities, and 70% being emergency responses.

EMS is provided provincially via a hybrid of direct delivery and contracted services, and in 2010 consisted of 194 ground ambulance locations (115 direct delivery/79 contracted providers). Practitioners include approximaely 4,000 Paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians and Emergency Medical Responders.

The STARS air ambulance flew approximately 1,300 missions in 2010, and another 5,500 patients were transferred by fixed wing aircraft via contracted air ambulance providers in Alberta in that same year.

References

  1. ^ Tories create health superboard. http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=4b0743f0-2046-4b13-8be7-7e2e4ca7e10d
  2. ^ Liepert, R. (2009). Provincial health structure: Alberta Health Innovation Report Fall pp 12-13 also at http://www.healthinnovationforum.org/2009/nov/01/recent-changes-health-structures-alberta/
  3. ^ Philippon, D (2009). Health care system reorganization: expectations, approaches and impact Health Innovation Report Fall pp 44-49
  4. ^ Philippon, D. J. and S. A. Wasylyshyn (1996). Health-care reform in Alberta. Canadian Public Administration 39(1): 70-84.
  5. ^ Reay, T. and C. R. Hinings (2005). The Recomposition of an Organizational Field: Health Care in Alberta. Organization Studies 26(3): 351-384.
  6. ^ Hinings, C. R., A. Casebeer, et al. (2003). Regionalizing Healthcare in Alberta: Legislated Change, Uncertainty and Loose Coupling British Journal of Management 14:S1(December): S15-S30.
  7. ^ Casebeer, A., T. Reay, et al. (2006). Experiences of Regionalization: Assessing Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives across Time. Healthcare Quarterly 9(2): 32-43.
  8. ^ Dr. Stephen Duckett's biography
  9. ^ UNA "about" page
  10. ^ AUPE "about" web page
  11. ^ HSAA "about" page
  12. ^ AHS facilities website
  13. ^ AHS hospital list
  14. ^ AHS backgrounder
  15. ^ EMS Transition

External links