Alberta Health Services

Alberta Health Services
Health Care
Industry Health care
Founded May 2008
Founder Government of Alberta
Headquarters Edmonton, Alberta
Area served
 Alberta
Key people
 Minister of Health
Health Board
President & CEO
Number of employees
 117,000 (2012)
Website www.albertahealthservices.ca

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the single health authority for the Canadian province of Alberta.

Alberta Health Services delivers medical care on behalf of the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Health[1] through 400 facilities throughout the province, including hospitals, clinics, continuing care facilities, mental health facilities and community health sites, while providing a variety of programs and services.

AHS is the largest single health authority in Canada and is the largest employer in the province of Alberta as well as being the fifth largest single employer in Canada.

Alberta Health Services is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta.

History

Alberta Health Services was created as a "superboard"[2] in May 2008 with the controversial abolition of the following regional health authorities:

as well as the following agencies:

Health services in Alberta have undergone several governance reorganization attempts in recent decades, with successively fewer separate public organizational entities.[5][6][7][8]

Mission and organization

Alberta Health Services has articulated 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.[9]

Alberta Health Services has been organized so as to separate acute hospital facilities (with separate reporting lines for major tertiary, metropolitan and regional hospitals) from smaller hospitals and community services, the latter of which are 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.[10]

Executive Leadership

Edmonton-based Dr.Stephen Duckett[11] 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 who resigned on 17 October 2013.[12] Vickie Kaminski was CEO from May 2014 until her [13]resignation in late 2015. Dr. Verna Yiu became the CEO on 03 June 2016 after serving as Interim CEO following Ms. Kaminski's resignation.[14]

Board Governance

The organization was initially overseen by a Board of Directors, followed by an Official Administrator, and most recently, again by a Board of Directors.

On 12 June 2013, Minister of Health Fred Horne fired the entire AHS Board over its refusal to cancel executive bonuses.[15] Three days later, Janet Davidson[16] was appointed the AHS Official Administrator by Minister Horne to act in place of its Board of Directors. On 12 September 2013, Dr. John W. F. Cowell replaced Davidson as the Official Administrator.[17] AHS has subsequently had Dr. Carl Amrhein and David Carpenter as Official Administrators.

The Alberta Health Services Board has been re-introduced, effective 27 November 2015 with Linda Hughes appointed as the Board Chair.[18]

Employees

Alberta Health Services employs over 108,000 staff and more than 7,700 physicians,[19] including clinical, administrative and support personnel across the province. Staff belong to a variety of professional organizations and associations, including United Nurses of Alberta,[20] several locals of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees,[21] and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.[22]

Facilities

AHS maintains and runs a number of different types of facilities.[23] These include:

South Zone

The south zone includes major centres such as Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Serving approximately 300,000 Albertan's. A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. South Zone includes[24]

Calgary Zone

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 five major acute care sites (hospitals) including Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General Hospital, South Health Campus, and Alberta Children's Hospital. Serving approximately 1,400,000 Albertan's. A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. Calgary Zone includes[25]

Central Zone

The central zone includes major centres such as Red Deer. Serving approximately 450,000 Albertan's. A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. Central Zone includes[26]

Edmonton Zone

The Edmonton Zone administrative offices are 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 Community Hospital (Fort Saskatchewan). Serving approximately 1.2 million Albertans. A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. Edmonton Zone includes[27]

North Zone

The north zone includes major centres such as Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray. Serving approximately 450,000 Albertan's. A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. North Zone includes[28]

(Grande Prairie)

Rural Zone

A large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of Alberta. They include[29]

Emergency medical services

In addition to providing acute care, Alberta Health Services took over responsibility for all emergency medical services (EMS) from municipalities on April 1, 2009, making ground ambulances a responsibility of the provincial government.[30]

Provincial air ambulance transitioned to AHS in April 2010.[31] Also included in the provincial model of EMS are inter-facility hospital transfers, and EMS dispatch.

In 2013, EMS averaged about 370,000 ambulance responses annually,[32] with approximately 30% of these being patient transfers between health care facilities, and 70% being emergency responses.

EMS is provided through a hybrid of direct delivery and contracted services. In 2013 this hybrid consisted of 204 ground ambulance locations. Practitioners include approximately 3,000 paramedics, emergency medical technicians and emergency medical responders.

There are 550 ambulances throughout the province, including 278 owned and operated by AHS.

In addition to land-based ambulances, AHS contracts 12 fixed-wing aircraft to provide 24-hour air ambulance services throughout the province. 5,500 patients were transferred by fixed-wing aircraft via contracted air ambulance providers in Alberta in 2010.

References

  1. ↑ "Alberta Health". Alberta Health. Government of Alberta.
  2. ↑ Tories create health superboard. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  3. ↑ 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/
  4. ↑ Philippon, D (2009). Health care system reorganization: expectations, approaches and impact Health Innovation Report Fall, pp. 44–49
  5. ↑ Philippon, D. J. and S. A. Wasylyshyn (1996). Health-care reform in Alberta. Canadian Public Administration 39(1): 70-84.
  6. ↑ Reay, T. and C. R. Hinings (2005). The Recomposition of an Organizational Field: Health Care in Alberta. Organization Studies 26(3): 351-384.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ Casebeer, A., T. Reay, et al. (2006). Experiences of Regionalization: Assessing Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives across Time. Healthcare Quarterly 9(2): 32-43.
  9. ↑ strategic direction
  10. ↑ formal structure
  11. ↑ Dr. Stephen Duckett's biography
  12. ↑ "Dr. Chris Eagle steps down as AHS CEO"
  13. ↑ "Vickie Kaminski resigns as CEO of Alberta Health Services"
  14. ↑ AHS Executive Leadership Team | Dr. Verna Yiu
  15. ↑ "Alberta Health Minister fires entire board over executive bonuses"
  16. ↑ "Appointment details, AHS Administrator Janet M. Davidson"
  17. ↑ "Statement from Health Minister Fred Horne on the appointment of Dr. Cowell"
  18. ↑ "New Alberta Health Services Board features strong health care expertise"
  19. ↑ http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/about/about.aspx
  20. ↑ UNA "about" page
  21. ↑ AUPE "about" web page
  22. ↑ HSAA "about" page
  23. ↑ AHS facilities website
  24. ↑ AHS hospital list
  25. ↑ AHS hospital list
  26. ↑ AHS hospital list
  27. ↑ AHS hospital list
  28. ↑ AHS hospital list
  29. ↑ AHS hospital list
  30. ↑ AHS backgrounder
  31. ↑ EMS Transition
  32. ↑ Ground and air ambulance services
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