Last Updated: October 4, 2024
An internal Alberta Health Services (AHS) audit completed in late September 2024 revealed that some patient referrals to external healthcare providers have not been properly processed. In some cases, this has caused a delay in care.
Our clinical teams continue to work urgently to assess every delayed referral, to determine what impact the delay may have had on each patient and to schedule those patients as quickly as possible.
AHS has already taken immediate action to expedite care for patients confirmed as having been impacted by delayed referrals to community healthcare providers.
Patients will be provided with the opportunity to address any questions and concerns they might have.
AHS takes any potential impact to patient care very seriously, and we are deeply sorry for any patient care delays.
While AHS is reviewing a large number of referrals to ensure a clear picture of the issue, to date, the potentially affected patients are a small number of the total referrals being assessed. On average, AHS issues approximately 100,000 referrals annually.
AHS has implemented several measures to prevent this in the future, including increasing training for processing patient referrals, improved auditing to mitigate future challenges, and improving electronic delivery of outgoing referrals. AHS will also work closely with the Health Quality Council of Alberta, as part of their independent, third-party review into this issue.
NOTE: this issue does not affect healthcare providers who are using Connect Care. This applies to some referrals from AHS to healthcare providers who are outside of AHS and not Connect Care users, such as specialty clinics and allied health professions (e.g. physiotherapists). These providers operate in partnership with AHS but work in a community setting, and typically have their own electronic medical record system that does not allow for referrals to easily flow from Connect Care to their systems directly.
As of 8 p.m. Oct. 4, Albertans who have had a referral through AHS or an AHS affiliate that uses Connect Care, will be able to see their referrals in MyAHS Connect.
MyAHS Connect is available to all users with a verified Alberta.ca account, on their MyHealth Records page. No other sign up is required. Albertans with a MyHealth Records account can directly access their MyAHS Connect account through MyHealth Records.
