May 5, 2023
May 5, 2023
Drayton Valley wildfire leads to hospital evacuation
A big thank you to AHS teams provincewide that have been mobilized in response to wildfires in Alberta. (more...)
We are working to urgently address four key priorities. They are:
Much of this work is underway. We will continue to use this update to highlight actions being taken to address our priorities.
Reducing Wait Times for Surgeries
Surgical wait-list update
Work continues on other AHS priorities including:
Digital Health Evolution and Innovation
Rural & Indigenous Initiatives and Engagement
Take care of your physical and mental well-being
Learn more about creating safe and healthy work environments, and supporting our mental well-being. (more...)
Mental Wellness Moment - mental health awareness
Dr. Nicholas Mitchell discusses how talking about your mental health is beneficial. (more...)
COVID-19 status and cases in Alberta
Latest hospitalizations, ICU update and information on variants of concern and wastewater surveillance. (more...)
CEO video message - more on Connect Care Launch 6
On the AHS Vlog, three guests discuss the sixth launch of Connect Care, scheduled for early tomorrow morning. (more...)
Review changes to the Microsoft Authenticator app
The approve/deny pop-up in the Microsoft Authenticator App will be replaced with a number-matching prompt to improve security. (more...)
Report clinical adverse events using RLS
To identify patient safety problems and make improvements, report hazards, close calls and clinical adverse events using RLS. (more...)
Special Practice Wise session on nursing's perfect storm
On May 11 at noon, Dr. Sandra Davidson, Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, will discuss practices to help nursing in current times. (more...)
Today is Clean Your Hands Day
Thank you for taking the time to clean your hands this year. Hand hygiene compliance continues to exceed the AHS target of 90 per cent. (more...)
Celebrating our 2023 CMA Award recipients
Congratulations to AHS physicians Dr. Esther Tailfeathers and Dr. Franco Rizzuti on receiving a 2023 Canadian Medical Association Award. (more...)
This weekend AHS is managing a wildfire response affecting multiple AHS zones and provincial portfolios, requiring a total and coordinated group effort. We’re also managing the sixth launch of Connect Care, planned for the early hours of Saturday. I wish to pass along my gratitude for everyone involved in these two events, both of which are urgent and complex in their own way. Please know AHS will do everything possible to support you this weekend and beyond, and please reach out for help if you need it from colleagues, from your supervisor or from the resources listed earlier in this Update. We will get through this — as we always do, together.
With enduring gratitude and appreciation,
Mauro Chies
AHS President & CEO
May 5, 2023
Please print and share with your teams as needed
I’d like to start this AHS Update with a big thank you for all the AHS teams recently mobilized to respond to wildfires in the province, including the evacuation of patients from the Drayton Valley Hospital and Care Centre and several continuing care sites.
Evacuations began early this morning in the community, in partnership with continuing care providers, and was completed this afternoon.
Acute care patients and continuing care residents have been moved to locations in Central and Edmonton zones. Many families assisted in evacuating their loved ones. For others, families of loved ones are being contacted directly to share patient/resident location information.
Where possible, staff have accompanied patients/residents to ensure care continuity. All moves are being coordinated with AHS EMS and municipal colleagues, and include movement by ground and air ambulance, non-ambulance transport vehicles and municipal vehicles, such as buses.
We are extremely grateful for our front-line staff and physicians who have come together to support the response across AHS and especially those whose families have been evacuated as well. We continue to work closely with our municipal and provincial partners, and continue to monitor the wildfire and plan our ongoing response. There are active fires in other parts of the province and zone emergency operations centres as well as the provincial ECC have been activated.
AHS has response plans in place if other communities, AHS facilities, patients and families across the province are affected by the wildfires occurring in Alberta.
I am grateful to all AHS teams supporting the wildfire response. Many of our people are in areas where they are personally affected by the wildfire yet remain directly involved in the response efforts. I cannot thank you enough. Please look after yourself and your loved ones, as you look after others. I’d also like to thank everyone across the province who will be contributing to our provincial response.
I know events like this are stressful and sometimes traumatizing for patients, residents and families — and also for our staff. AHS has resources in place to support staff. They include:
We are working to urgently address four key priorities.
They are:
Much of this work is underway. We will continue to use this update to highlight actions being taken to address our priorities.
Our total surgical wait-list, as of April 24, for adults is 66,297, with 47.7 per cent (or 31,627 adult patients) waiting outside of clinically recommended wait times. For pediatrics, there are 5,797 patients on the wait-list, with 25.4 per cent (or 1,470 pediatric patients) waiting outside of clinically recommended wait times.
AHS has completed approximately 17,780 surgeries this fiscal year to date (April 1-23), representing six per cent of our annual volume target of 310,000 procedures.
Work continues on other AHS priorities, including:
Connect Care Launch 6 to involve more than 200 sites
Prescribers, staff and managers are ready to “flip the switch” on the sixth launch of Connect Care tomorrow morning (May 6). Launch 6 will involve 208 sites, with 66 fully moving to Connect Care and 142 moving part of their programs or services to Connect Care across all five AHS zones, including seven Covenant Health locations. After Launch 6, there will be nearly 99,000 staff and physicians across the province using Connect Care. With every Connect Care launch, super users help their colleagues, as they learn to work in the clinical information system that supports Connect Care. Thanks to all involved for their hard work to make this a successful and safe launch. Please share your photos and notes of appreciation to the Sharing the Love page.
To see what is ahead for the remaining launches, visit the Connect Care Implementation Timeline.
Indigenous Support Line launches in South Zone
Indigenous Peoples in the South Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS) will have access to a support line to help them navigate the health system.
The toll-free Indigenous Support Line can be reached by calling 1-844-944-4744. The support line is staffed by Indigenous Health Link staff, who will answer callers' questions, help them access culturally appropriate care and support, and assist them with navigating the healthcare system. The line is available weekdays from noon to 8 p.m.
The new service is modelled after an Indigenous Support Line launched last June in the AHS North Zone. Since then, staff have taken more than 2,000 calls.
The AHS Wisdom Council & Elder Circle played a key role in the creation of the Indigenous Support Lines in the two zones.
For Health and Safety Week and Mental Health Week, you can use these resources to help support your physical and mental well-being:
Questions? Contact wellness@ahs.ca.
In this Mental Wellness Moment, Dr. Nicholas Mitchell — Provincial Medical Director for Addiction and Mental Health with Alberta Health Services — talks about why mental health awareness is important, and how talking about your mental health can be beneficial. May 1-7 is Mental Health Week.
Hospitalizations and ICUs
On April 24:
Note: Hospitalization data is presented with a one-week delay to more accurately reflect the number of hospitalized patients who tested positive for COVID-19. There is a delay in identification of some hospitalized cases due to the time between being admitted to hospital, getting tested, and getting test results.
Variants of concern
Alberta Precision Laboratories continues to closely monitor SARS-CoV-2 variants. From April 10 to 16, an average of 67 per cent of positive samples were strain-typed by genome sequencing. Of those, 63 per cent were XBB.1.5, seven per cent were XBB.1.16 and 13 per cent were other XBB lineages. Eight per cent were BQ.1.1. Other BA.5 lineages and BA.2 lineages now make up the minority of cases. To date in Alberta, we have seen 62 cases of XBB.1.16.
Wastewater surveillance
Wastewater can provide an early indication of COVID-19 infection trends in a community. For wastewater surveillance comparing weekly averages:
The above interpretations were made from available data as of May 1 at 1 p.m.
Other notable COVID-19-related information
Joining the AHS Vlog to talk about the upcoming Launch 6 of Connect Care are:
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a security measure that helps protect AHS data and systems. MFA increases security by verifying your identity during log-in by using an app on your cellphone, receiving a text message, or by phone call to a cellphone or landline.
On May 8, the approve/deny pop-up in the Microsoft Authenticator App will be replaced with a number-matching prompt to improve security and provide protection against accidental approvals and phishing attempts. The Microsoft Authenticator app will automatically update on May 8.
Reminder: Set up at least two authentication methods in case your primary option is unavailable.
Questions? See Microsoft Authenticator FAQ.
To identify patient safety problems and make improvements, it is important to report hazards, close calls and clinical adverse events (CAEs). AHS has a single, provincewide system for patient safety reporting called the Reporting & Learning System for Patient Safety (RLS).
All staff and physicians have a responsibility to report patient safety events. When you report a CAE, close call, or hazard though RLS, the submission is reviewed, trended and shared to help us learn as an organization. Reporting helps to identify patient safety problems and to make improvements.
We encourage you to consistently submit CAEs and other patient safety problems using RLS, available on Insite.
Please note: RLS is intended for reporting incidents related to patient safety and should not be used for concerns related to professionalism of another physician. If a physician has a professionalism concern about a colleague, they should discuss this with their medical leader. There is a Safe Disclosure Line physicians can reach out to for support at 1-800-661-9675 or by emailing
complianceofficer@ahs.ca.
In celebration of Nursing Week (May 8-14), join a special Practice Wise session, Nursing's Perfect Storm, delivered over Zoom by Dr. Sandra Davidson, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. In this presentation, Dr. Davidson will discuss the hopeful, future forming practices that can help us all emerge from the storm. The presentation runs from noon to 1 p.m. on May 11.
Thank you for taking the time to clean your hands this year. Hand hygiene compliance continues to exceed the AHS target of 90 per cent. Optimal hand hygiene is one of the most effective measures to reduce healthcare-associated infections. This year we’re acknowledging the accomplishments and successes of staff involved in hand hygiene initiatives:
Read more about their efforts at ahs.ca. Email hand.hygiene@ahs.ca to share any tips you and your team are using at AHS facilities to increase hand hygiene.
Clean Your Hands Day is a Healthcare Excellence Canada-led initiative.
Congratulations to AHS physicians Dr. Esther Tailfeathers and Dr. Franco Rizzuti on receiving a 2023 Canadian Medical Association (CMA) Award.
Dr. Tailfeathers, Senior Medical Director, Indigenous Wellness Core, was awarded the F.N.G. Starr Award. This award is the highest CMA award available to its members and recognizes outstanding and inspiring lifetime achievement.
Dr. Rizzuti, Medical Officer of Health for Provincial Population & Public Health in the Calgary Zone, received the CMA Award for Young Leaders (Early Career) in recognition of his exemplary creativity, initiative and commitment to making a difference at the local, provincial/territorial or national level.
Learn more about these awards on the CMA website.
Learn more about Dr. Tailfeathers' work supporting and educating families affected by the overdose epidemic in Alberta's Kainai First Nation in the film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy.
This weekend AHS is managing a wildfire response affecting multiple AHS zones and provincial portfolios, requiring a total and coordinated group effort. We’re also managing the sixth launch of Connect Care, planned for the early hours of Saturday. I wish to pass along my gratitude for everyone involved in these two events, both of which are urgent and complex in their own way. Please know AHS will do everything possible to support you this weekend and beyond, and please reach out for help if you need it from colleagues, from your supervisor or from the resources listed earlier in this Update. We will get through this — as we always do, together.
With enduring gratitude and appreciation,
Mauro Chies
AHS President & CEO
