Healthcare Motion Plan | Alberta Well being Companies

• EMS response occasions have stabilized in Edmonton and Calgary, regardless of a sustained 30 per cent improve in name quantity throughout the province.
• Nineteen new ambulances had been added in 2022, with 20 extra coming to Edmonton and Calgary this 12 months.
• EMS employed 457 new employees members in 2022, together with 341 paramedics.
• This 12 months AHS launched EMS/811 Shared Response, which permits for the switch of non-emergency 911 callers to Well being Hyperlink 811 registered nurses for additional triage, evaluation and care. Within the first two weeks of Shared Response, roughly six per cent of EMS calls have been transferred to 811. In different Canadian jurisdictions the place comparable name triaging processes have been applied, as much as one-fifth of EMS calls are transferred to nursing traces, over time. If AHS realizes the same name switch charge, EMS might be freed up from responding to roughly 40,000 low-acuity calls every year.
• As an alternative of utilizing extremely skilled paramedics for non-medical affected person transfers like transporting sufferers dwelling, AHS is arranging non-clinical transports for sufferers who don’t require medical assist throughout transport. AHS expects 15 per cent of transports might be diverted from EMS, liberating these sources to reply to emergencies.
• AHS EMS has added extra paramedic employees and elevated ambulance hours to raised serve sufferers within the communities of Okotoks and Chestermere. Ambulance protection in each Chestermere and Okotoks will now be obtainable, domestically, 24 hours every day. Beforehand, ambulances from surrounding areas have served the group outdoors of protection hours.

We shared a few of our EMS successes with the general public and media, together with:

• Diversion of low-priority calls to Poison and Drug Info (PADIS), when acceptable.
• Stopping automated dispatch of ambulances to non-injury motorized vehicle collisions.
• Pre-empting and permitting for ambulances to be diverted to higher-acuity calls when wanted.
• Enhancing partnerships with different first responder teams.
• Recruitment, retention, and elevated EMS employees helps.
• Including triage physicians in emergency division ready rooms to assist ambulances bringing sufferers to hospital and getting again on the highway.
• Permitting paramedics to evaluate and deal with with out transport to hospital.
• Implementing the EMS Provincial Service Plan. This five-year plan with short-, medium- to long-term initiatives will tackle present challenges, consider present service ranges, and put together for future progress and affected person care. All features of the EMS system throughout the province (floor ambulance, dispatch, ambulance protection, and so forth.) are being checked out as a part of the strategic plan, working to seek out methods to enhance EMS providers in our province.
• Forming an Emergency Division Offload Delay Process Power to convey collectively key healthcare companions concerned in all ranges of the well being system to cut back not solely EMS offload delay however to enhance affected person entry to emergency departments and different well being providers.

• AHS is growing the variety of publicly funded surgical procedures carried out by contracted chartered surgical amenities (CSFs) to extend general surgical capability.

  • Within the Calgary Zone, AHS signed a contract with Canadian Surgical procedure Options to supply 3,000 extra orthopedic procedures, efficient Jan. 1, 2023. This contract will improve orthopedic procedures carried out within the Calgary space by 21 per cent in contrast with 2021-22.
  • Within the Edmonton Zone, a brand new facility run by Enoch Cree Nation, in partnership with Surgical Centres Inc., will provide 3,000 orthopedic procedures. It’s the first surgical facility to be constructed on First Nation land within the province.
  • CSFs have been contracted to carry out greater than 35,000 publicly funded ophthalmology procedures.

• AHS is nearly again at pre-pandemic surgical volumes, and our surgical waitlist is nearly the identical because it was earlier than the pandemic regardless of the surgical postponements that occurred because of the COVID-19 response.
• Most cancers surgical procedures in Alberta are at practically 112 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes, with an growing quantity accomplished inside clinically beneficial time.
• AHS has already accomplished roughly 17,170 most cancers surgical procedures in 2022-23, with six weeks remaining within the fiscal 12 months, in comparison with roughly 13,650 in 2018/19. This is a rise of 25.8 per cent.
• As much as 1,200 extra surgical procedures might be carried out yearly on the Lois Gap Hospital for Ladies with the opening of fifth surgical suite on the facility.
• Upgrades and renovations to all six working rooms (ORs) on the Northern Lights Regional Well being Centre in Fort McMurray are ongoing, enhancing surgical capabilities. The work is predicted to be full within the first half of 2023.
• Northern Albertans now have elevated entry to hip surgical procedure with the opening of a brand new surgical program at Hinton Healthcare Centre. Hinton turns into the fourth website within the AHS North Zone offering hip surgical procedures, becoming a member of Grande Prairie, Westlock and Bonnyville. The native surgical groups anticipate to carry out as much as 16 orthopedic surgical procedures each month this 12 months.
• Sufferers referred to a urologist or orthopedic surgeon will profit from a brand new program that helps their household physician discover them a specialist with the shortest wait time. The Alberta Facilitated Entry to Specialised Therapy (FAST) program allows household docs and different suppliers to ship referrals to a central workforce, which then assigns the referral to a specialist with the shortest wait-list.
• AHS has improved administration of our surgical wait-lists utilizing automated calls.
• AHS has expanded different care workforce fashions to make sure obtainable helps reminiscent of anesthesia.

We shared a few of our surgical procedure successes with the general public and media, together with:

• 50 extra absolutely staffed crucial care beds had been added throughout the province. Alberta now has 223 grownup basic ICU beds, a 29 per cent improve from earlier than the pandemic.
• AHS opened a further 258 acute care beds to assist extra sufferers by means of the winter months.
• AHS opened 1,000 persevering with care beds in 2022, with a further 308 to open earlier than the tip of March.
• Since November 2022, AHS has recruited 28 physicians to rural Alberta, together with 12 within the North Zone, 4 within the South Zone, and 12 within the Central Zone.
• Extra Albertans are receiving hospital-level care at dwelling by means of two established hospital-at-home packages: the Advanced Care Hub in Calgary and Digital Hospital in Edmonton. The 2 packages cared for 644 sufferers in 2021-22, representing a 118 per cent improve within the numbers of admissions over a two-year interval. The same program launched in Wetaskiwin in October 2022.
• Hemodialysis items at St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre and Northern Lights Regional Well being Centre in Fort McMurray have expanded their hours of operation, bringing care nearer to dwelling for six dialysis sufferers in every group.
• Albertans in a number of smaller communities have elevated entry to providers with the opening of habit and psychological well being walk-in clinics. These clinics have opened in Chilly Lake, St. Paul and Bonnyville within the North Zone, and in Coronation, Vermilion, Stettler, Provost, Viking and Killam within the Central Zone.

We shared a few of our entry successes with the general public and media, together with:

• Launched Digital MD pilot program. Well being Hyperlink 811 callers needing medical evaluation will be referred, the place clinically acceptable, to a doctor to nearly assess them over the cellphone or by means of a safe Zoom hyperlink, decreasing doubtlessly pointless visits to the emergency division. Greater than 7,600 sufferers had been assessed by a program doctor — with 4,200 of those sufferers capable of handle at dwelling with self-care — within the first eight months of this system.
• Opened 36 new transition beds that might be obtainable for individuals experiencing homelessness who’ve been discharged from Edmonton hospital emergency departments.
• Established an built-in operations centre in Calgary to assist EMS off-load and placement of sufferers in hospital (already established in Edmonton, exploring enlargement to Purple Deer).
• Expanded provincial regulation enforcement psychological well being line and rural police and disaster groups to assist rural communities.

We shared a few of our emergency division successes with the general public and media, together with:

• Launched Digital MD pilot program. Well being Hyperlink 811 callers needing medical evaluation will be referred, the place clinically acceptable, to a doctor to nearly assess them over the cellphone or by means of a safe Zoom hyperlink, decreasing doubtlessly pointless visits to the emergency division. Greater than 7,600 sufferers had been assessed by a program doctor — with 4,200 of those sufferers capable of handle at dwelling with self-care — within the first eight months of this system.
• Opened 36 new transition beds that might be obtainable for individuals experiencing homelessness who’ve been discharged from Edmonton hospital emergency departments.
• Established an built-in operations centre in Calgary to assist EMS off-load and placement of sufferers in hospital (already established in Edmonton, exploring enlargement to Purple Deer).
• Expanded provincial regulation enforcement psychological well being line and rural police and disaster groups to assist rural communities.

We shared a few of our emergency division successes with the general public and media, together with: