November 3, 2023
We are working to urgently address four key priorities. They are:
We also continue to work on improving local decision-making, and making sure that local teams and sites are supported. Much of this work is underway. We will continue to use this update to highlight actions being taken to address our priorities.
Improving patient flow and continuity of care
Launch 7 of Connect Care goes live Sunday
Lab appointment capacity increases in Calgary
AHS to reopen Breton Medical Clinic next week
New sexual health clinic opens in Ponoka
ED renovations underway at St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre
AHS to open after-hours clinic next year in Picture Butte
Decreasing emergency department wait times
Cochrane wait times now online
Dental clinic opens for uninsured, low-income Albertans
Reducing surgery wait times
Surgical waitlist update
Work continues on other AHS priorities, including:
Continuing Care
Access counselling services
Healthy coping strategies are needed to navigate day-to-day challenges. Short-term counselling can offer tips for your well-being. (more...)
Mental Wellness Moment - Culture and diversity within mental health
Dr. Nicholas Mitchell talks about how culture can affect mental health and how AHS supports people from culturally diverse backgrounds. (more...)
AHS Vlog - Institute for Healthcare Optimization
Guests discuss our partnership with the IHO, which helps us improve surgical outcomes and experience. (more...)
Respiratory virus update
The Government of Alberta’s respiratory virus dashboard includes reporting for influenza, COVID-19 and RSV. (more...)
Coding changes for documented pressure injuries
Pressure injuries documented by any regulated healthcare provider are now coded and captured by Health Information Management (more...)
New patient safety course designated as required learning
The PPS100 A Culture of Patient Safety course is now required learning for employees and physicians working in clinical service areas. (more...)
Vote for your Halloween contest favourites
Finalists have been selected, vote by Nov. 8. (more...)
Ask an ethicist your questions on Nov. 8
Bring your ethics questions to an Ask an Ethicist event on Nov. 8. (more...)
Webinars highlight Virtual Health successes, collaboration
Register for Virtual Health Highlights 2023, where we’ll celebrate the great work taking place in the virtual care space. (more...)
Apply for the HQCA Patient Experience Awards
All AHS people, teams and initiatives are encouraged to apply for the HQCA Patient Experience Awards. Deadline is Nov. 17. (more...)
Patient experience initiatives focus of upcoming virtual showcase
Join us at the next virtual showcase on Nov. 8, as we highlight patient-centred programs improving patient experience. (more...)
You and your colleagues are important to me, and your contributions are critical to the delivery of high-quality care for Albertans. Please do what you can to keep yourself, your loved ones and your colleagues safe. I encourage you to protect yourself and others during respiratory illness season, including by getting your influenza and COVID-19 immunizations if you haven’t done so already.
Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) immunization clinics are now open. You can walk in, book online or call 811 to make an appointment. To get the influenza vaccine, you can also check your facility for a roving cart or get immunized by a site champion on your unit. This year, you will have the option to receive an mRNA XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine and an influenza vaccine at the same booking at participating WHS clinics. You can also get immunized at local pharmacies, doctors’ offices and public health clinics. Households with children under five can get immunized at AHS public health clinics. Learn more at ahs.ca/vaccine. If you choose any of these options, please submit a Got My Flu Shot form on Insite.
Respiratory virus season always places additional demands and pressures on all of us. So please remember to lead with kindness and respect, and to be good to yourself and others by staying home if you’re sick. Thank you for everything you do, each and every day.
With enduring gratitude and appreciation,
Mauro Chies
AHS President & CEO
November 3, 2023
Please print and share with your teams as needed
We are working to urgently address four key priorities. They are:
We also continue to work on improving local decision-making, and making sure that local teams and sites are supported. Much of this work is underway. We will continue to use this update to highlight actions being taken to address our priorities.
Launch 7 of Connect Care goes live Sunday
Launch 7 of Connect Care is scheduled to go live early Sunday, bringing more than 12,000 additional staff and physicians at 79 AHS and AHS-partner acute care and combined acute and long-term care sites onto the common provincial information system.
This involves sites and programs primarily in AHS North and South zones, including Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray; Medicine Hat Regional Hospital; Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge; and associated pharmacy and laboratory services in the North and South zones.
There are now more than 112,000 staff, physicians and other healthcare providers using Connect Care to improve care for patients in all five AHS zones. There are nine Connect Care launches, which started November 2019 and will continue to the final implementation in fall 2024. When fully in place, approximately 118,000 staff and physicians will be using Connect Care at 682 sites across Alberta.
Lab appointment capacity increases in Calgary
Calgarians have access to thousands of additional community lab appointments with the addition of a new community lab in city’s southeast.
About 2,000 more patients in the Calgary area will have their tests done sooner every week. Another 800 weekly appointments will be available in early 2024 once expansion of the community labs at Glenbrook Plaza in Calgary’s southwest and in Airdrie are complete.
The additional appointments build on the improvements to lab capacity made by Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL) in recent months. Hundreds of additional weekly appointments were added at hospital labs in Calgary for community patients plus additional providers were enlisted to help boost capacity, which resulted in several thousand additional appointments each week.
APL has increased appointment capacity in Calgary by 22 per cent since September. There are currently more than 24,000 community appointments available each week.
AHS to reopen Breton Medical Clinic next week
Breton and area residents will once again be able to access medical appointments closer to home when the Breton Medical Clinic reopens on Nov. 7 after being closed in late June.
Set to provide appointments on Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the clinic will be supported by two physicians who will travel to the community from Drayton Valley to deliver family medical care as well as care to those who reside in long-term care at the Breton Health Centre.
Patients can now begin booking appointments.
New sexual health clinic opens in Ponoka
Central Albertans with questions or concerns about their sexual health now have more access to testing, treatment and education with the opening of a new sexual and reproductive health clinic in Ponoka.
The Ponoka Sexual Health Clinic — located within the Ponoka Community Health Centre — provides sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, birth control, inclusive sexual health education and other services, available by appointment or walk-in.
The clinic is open Tuesdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Services are provided by nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians free of charge. All visits are confidential.
This is the only sexual health clinic outside of Red Deer in the AHS Central Zone.
ED renovations underway at St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre
Work is underway on an emergency department (ED) upgrade and renovation at the St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre.
The $3.5-million project includes adding three treatment spaces (for a total of nine); upgrades to existing treatment and triage spaces; upgrades to electrical and mechanical systems, including a new nurse call system; a new bariatric, accessible patient washroom; enhancements to staff support areas, and improved functionality to better serve clients. The upgrade is expected to enhance patient and staff safety, patient experience and patient flow.
Work is expected to be completed in mid-2024.
AHS to open after-hours clinic next year in Picture Butte
AHS has committed to opening a new, after-hours clinic at the Piyami Health Centre in Picture Butte that will provide residents with access to healthcare services outside of private family clinic hours.
The clinic is aimed to open within the first six months of 2024, and will restore evening and weekend care options for the community. The contract for the previous operation of an ambulatory care clinic located in the health centre ended last month.
An AHS-run clinic will operate similar to others in the zone, such as the Coaldale Health Centre, where a doctor is scheduled to be on-site during operational hours rather than on-call or virtually. Timelines for opening the new clinic are not yet finalized as operation is dependent on the recruitment of physicians and regulated nursing professionals.
Cochrane wait times now online
Real-time estimated wait times for the urgent care centre in Cochrane are now available online, giving Albertans another tool to help them decide where to access care for themselves and their families. The wait times can be found at ahs.ca/waittimes, under the tab for Cochrane. They are also available on the Alberta Health Services (AHS) app for iPhone and Android mobile devices. Cochrane’s Community Health Centre is the second regional location in the AHS Calgary Zone to have the estimated wait times available. The estimated wait times for the Airdrie Community Health Centre were added in March. More locations will be added as the information and infrastructure become available.
Dental clinic opens for uninsured, low-income Albertans
Low-income Albertans living in the AHS Central Zone now have improved access to dental services with the opening of a new public health dental clinic in the city. The clinic is for Alberta residents without dental insurance of any kind, individuals with income under low-income cutoff limits, and/or with a direct referral from the hospital emergency department for a specific dental emergency. The clinic — staffed by dentists and registered dental assistants with two fully equipped dental treatment rooms — is expected to help relieve the capacity pressures on area emergency departments.
As of Oct. 30, approximately 55.6 per cent of cases on the surgical waitlist at adult facilities were within clinically appropriate wait times. More information coming soon about ongoing efforts to improve surgical access and volumes through the Alberta Surgical Initiative.
Work continues on other AHS priorities including:
Norwood West at the Gene Zwozdesky Centre opens
Over the next several weeks, staff will begin to welcome patients and residents to the newly opened Norwood West, part of the Gene Zwozdesky Centre in Edmonton.
The tower will increase the number of post-acute and continuing care beds from 205 to 234 — and that number will jump to 350 once the Norwood East renovations are completed.
The facility includes a specialty dental clinic, community paramedic programs, the Comprehensive Home Option of Integrated Care for the Elderly (CHOICE) program for elderly care, hemodialysis, pulmonary rehabilitation, and the respiratory outreach and respiratory benefits program.
The 40,000-sq.-m building, features lots of storage space in resident rooms, a memory box and chalkboard attachments outside of each room, and specialized wayfinding that incorporates colours, names and wildlife.
Healthy coping strategies are needed to navigate day-to-day challenges. Short-term counselling can offer tips for your well-being.
Short-term, solution-focused counselling, available through the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP), can support your well-being.
When you call the intake line, you will be asked for some basic information and will have an initial appointment set up at a convenient time. An expert counsellor will use advanced assessment tools to determine the best service for you. Counselling is available over the phone or virtually for you and your immediate family members.
You can also log on to homeweb.ca and click on Meet Now to connect with a counsellor immediately for a single session.
At any time, you can call the EFAP intake line at 1-877-273-3134. Physicians can contact the AMA Physician and Family Support Program, at 1-877-767-4637 for options and support.
Questions? Contact wellness@ahs.ca.
In this Mental Wellness Moment, Dr. Nicholas Mitchell — Provincial Medical Director for Addiction and Mental Health with AHS — talks about how culture and diversity can affect mental health and how AHS supports people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Today, I’d like to provide more details on our partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Optimization (IHO). The IHO is a non-profit organization focused on research, education and service. It will support work already underway to improve patient outcomes and experience as part of the Alberta Surgical Initiative (ASI).
The focus of this work is on process improvement in the larger AHS acute care sites that provide scheduled and unscheduled surgical care. We’re looking to build capacity within our sites and make improvements to operational management, including how we handle variations in patient flow.
Joining me to tell us more about IHO and some of the success we’ve seen through the ASI are:
From left: Mauro Chies, Stacey Litvinchuk, Kevin Gerrits
The Government of Alberta’s respiratory virus dashboard includes reporting for influenza, COVID-19 and RSV cases, positivity and severe outcomes. The dashboard is updated every Thursday throughout the respiratory virus season.
Expanded data collection of the pressure area now allows coders to use documentation by regulated allied healthcare professionals to better capture pressure injury data. This change came into effect for acute and long-term care last year.
Regulated healthcare providers can now document the stage and location of the pressure injury on discharge/case summary, report of history and physician exam, progress notes and consultation reports. Providing this documentation of pressure injuries in health records contributes to improved national reporting. Learn more.
A Culture of Patient Safety for Clinical Service Delivery Team Members course has been designated as required learning for all professional and non-professional employees working in clinical service areas and is optional for employees working in non-clinical service areas of the organization. This course is part of the Academy for Quality Improvement Sciences.
This e-learning module takes approximately one hour to complete and is now available on MyLearningLink. Search “QPSE” for course dates and registration.
PPS100 A Culture of Patient Safety version of the course remains available and is required for physicians, leaders and all those in quality and patient safety positions throughout AHS.
For physicians, only PPS100 A Culture of Patient Safety course is eligible for continuing professional development credit from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Canadian College of Family Practitioners.
From close to 180 entries from all over the province, the finalists have been selected for our annual AHS Halloween Costume and Decorated Space contest. This year, the contest also welcomed costumes worn while working from home and house decorations, along with traditional site and office costumes and decorations.
Please vote for your favourite entry. Voting will be open until midnight Wednesday, Nov. 8. The winner will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 9 via Interchange and Insite. Our winner will receive a $100 gift card from Amazon, generously donated by our Community Engagement & Communications department.
Do you run into ethical dilemmas in your work?
Do you want to know more about the ethical issues you encounter every day?
On Nov. 8 from noon to 1 p.m., the Clinical Ethics Service is hosting an Ask an Ethicist panel on Zoom where questions that are most important to you can be answered.
Nov. 5-11 is National Health Ethics Week, an opportunity to bring people together and encourage conversations about health ethics issues.
Join us for Virtual Health Highlights 2023, where we’ll celebrate the great work taking place in the virtual care space. There are two webinar opportunities where you can learn more about some great virtual care programs at AHS.
Clinical Successes
Register to join Dr. Michelle Bailey, Medical Director, Virtual Health, as she hosts speakers from Calgary Zone Virtual Home Hospital, Edmonton Zone Virtual Home Hospital and the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program as they highlight the use of technology to facilitate virtual care delivery. Tuesday, Nov. 21, from 11 a.m. to noon.
Collaboration and Innovation
Register to join Kris Gray, Provincial Director, Virtual Health, as she hosts speakers from Virtual Health, Technology Operations and Virtual Health Technologies as they highlight collaboration among programs and new innovations to facilitate care delivery virtually. Thursday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to noon
The Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) Patient Experience Awards recognize and spread knowledge about initiatives that improve patient experience in accessing and receiving healthcare services. I encourage all people, teams and initiatives to apply for this award through the HQCA website by Nov. 17. See the user guide for more information about criteria and the application process. Read about the recipients from 2023 (many were AHS teams) here. All applicants will be contacted in December by the HQCA. Questions? Email info@hqca.ca.
The second Patient Experience Virtual Showcase is scheduled for Nov. 8, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and presenters are getting ready to share their patient experience initiatives with you. You will leave feeling inspired and ready to think differently about your own program or service and how you can make them more patient-centred.
Presentations include:
Attend one, two or three hours of the showcase and learn from colleagues across the organization. Register to attend.
This virtual showcase is being hosted by Engagement and Patient Experience during Patient- and Family-Centred Care Week, Nov. 6-10.
You and your colleagues are important to me, and your contributions are critical to the delivery of high-quality care for Albertans. Please do what you can to keep yourself, your loved ones and your colleagues safe. I encourage you to protect yourself and others during respiratory illness season, including by getting your influenza and COVID-19 immunizations if you haven’t done so already.
Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) immunization clinics are now open. You can walk in, book online or call 811 to make an appointment. To get the influenza vaccine, you can also check your facility for a roving cart or get immunized by a site champion on your unit. This year, you will have the option to receive an mRNA XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine and an influenza vaccine at the same booking at participating WHS clinics. You can also get immunized at local pharmacies, doctors’ offices and public health clinics. Households with children under five can get immunized at AHS public health clinics. Learn more at ahs.ca/vaccine. If you choose any of these options, please submit a Got My Flu Shot form on Insite.
Respiratory virus season always places additional demands and pressures on all of us. So please remember to lead with kindness and respect, and to be good to yourself and others by staying home if you’re sick. Thank you for everything you do, each and every day.
With enduring gratitude and appreciation,
Mauro Chies
AHS President & CEO
