Healthcare Action Plan | Alberta Health Services

• EMS response times have stabilized in Edmonton and Calgary, despite a sustained 30 per cent increase in call volume across the province.
• Nineteen new ambulances were added in 2022, with 20 more coming to Edmonton and Calgary this year.
• EMS hired 457 new staff members in 2022, including 341 paramedics.
• This year AHS launched EMS/811 Shared Response, which allows for the transfer of non-emergency 911 callers to Health Link 811 registered nurses for further triage, assessment and care. In the first two weeks of Shared Response, approximately six per cent of EMS calls have been transferred to 811. In other Canadian jurisdictions where similar call triaging processes have been implemented, up to one-fifth of EMS calls are transferred to nursing lines, over time. If AHS realizes a similar call transfer rate, EMS could be freed up from responding to approximately 40,000 low-acuity calls each year.
• Instead of using highly trained paramedics for non-medical patient transfers like transporting patients home, AHS is arranging non-clinical transports for patients who do not require medical support during transport. AHS expects 15 per cent of transports will be diverted from EMS, freeing these resources to respond to emergencies.
• AHS EMS has added additional paramedic staff and increased ambulance hours to better serve patients in the communities of Okotoks and Chestermere. Ambulance coverage in both Chestermere and Okotoks will now be available, locally, 24 hours daily. Previously, ambulances from surrounding areas have served the community outside of coverage hours.

We shared some of our EMS successes with the public and media, including:

• Diversion of low-priority calls to Poison and Drug Information (PADIS), when appropriate.
• Stopping automatic dispatch of ambulances to non-injury motor vehicle collisions.
• Pre-empting and allowing for ambulances to be diverted to higher-acuity calls when needed.
• Enhancing partnerships with other first responder groups.
• Recruitment, retention, and increased EMS staff supports.
• Adding triage physicians in emergency department waiting rooms to support ambulances bringing patients to hospital and getting back on the road.
• Allowing paramedics to assess and treat without transport to hospital.
• Implementing the EMS Provincial Service Plan. This five-year plan with short-, medium- to long-term initiatives will address current challenges, evaluate current service levels, and prepare for future growth and patient care. All aspects of the EMS system across the province (ground ambulance, dispatch, ambulance coverage, etc.) are being looked at as part of the strategic plan, working to find ways to improve EMS services in our province.
• Forming an Emergency Department Offload Delay Task Force to bring together key healthcare partners involved in all levels of the health system to reduce not only EMS offload delay but to improve patient access to emergency departments and other health services.

• AHS is increasing the number of publicly funded surgeries performed by contracted chartered surgical facilities (CSFs) to increase overall surgical capacity.

  • In the Calgary Zone, AHS signed a contract with Canadian Surgery Solutions to offer 3,000 additional orthopedic procedures, effective Jan. 1, 2023. This contract will increase orthopedic procedures performed in the Calgary area by 21 per cent compared with 2021-22.
  • In the Edmonton Zone, a new facility run by Enoch Cree Nation, in partnership with Surgical Centres Inc., will offer 3,000 orthopedic procedures. It is the first surgical facility to be built on First Nation land in the province.
  • CSFs have been contracted to perform more than 35,000 publicly funded ophthalmology procedures.

• AHS is almost back at pre-pandemic surgical volumes, and our surgical waitlist is almost the same as it was before the pandemic despite the surgical postponements that occurred due to the COVID-19 response.
• Cancer surgeries in Alberta are at nearly 112 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes, with an increasing number completed within clinically recommended time.
• AHS has already completed approximately 17,170 cancer surgeries in 2022-23, with six weeks remaining in the fiscal year, compared to approximately 13,650 in 2018/19. This is an increase of 25.8 per cent.
• Up to 1,200 additional surgical procedures could be performed annually at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women with the opening of fifth surgical suite at the facility.
• Upgrades and renovations to all six operating rooms (ORs) at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray are ongoing, enhancing surgical capabilities. The work is expected to be complete in the first half of 2023.
• Northern Albertans now have increased access to hip surgery with the opening of a new surgical program at Hinton Healthcare Centre. Hinton becomes the fourth site in the AHS North Zone providing hip surgeries, joining Grande Prairie, Westlock and Bonnyville. The local surgical teams expect to perform up to 16 orthopedic surgeries every month this year.
• Patients referred to a urologist or orthopedic surgeon will benefit from a new program that helps their family doctor find them a specialist with the shortest wait time. The Alberta Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST) program enables family doctors and other providers to send referrals to a central team, which then assigns the referral to a specialist with the shortest wait-list.
• AHS has improved management of our surgical wait-lists using automated calls.
• AHS has expanded alternative care team models to ensure available supports such as anesthesia.

We shared some of our surgery successes with the public and media, including:

• 50 additional fully staffed critical care beds were added across the province. Alberta now has 223 adult general ICU beds, a 29 per cent increase from before the pandemic.
• AHS opened an additional 258 acute care beds to support additional patients through the winter months.
• AHS opened 1,000 continuing care beds in 2022, with an additional 308 to open before the end of March.
• Since November 2022, AHS has recruited 28 physicians to rural Alberta, including 12 in the North Zone, four in the South Zone, and 12 in the Central Zone.
• More Albertans are receiving hospital-level care at home through two established hospital-at-home programs: the Complex Care Hub in Calgary and Virtual Hospital in Edmonton. The two programs cared for 644 patients in 2021-22, representing a 118 per cent increase in the numbers of admissions over a two-year period. A similar program launched in Wetaskiwin in October 2022.
• Hemodialysis units at St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre and Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray have expanded their hours of operation, bringing care closer to home for six dialysis patients in each community.
• Albertans in several smaller communities have increased access to services with the opening of addiction and mental health walk-in clinics. These clinics have opened in Cold Lake, St. Paul and Bonnyville in the North Zone, and in Coronation, Vermilion, Stettler, Provost, Viking and Killam in the Central Zone.

We shared some of our access successes with the public and media, including:

• Launched Virtual MD pilot program. Health Link 811 callers needing medical assessment can be referred, where clinically appropriate, to a physician to virtually assess them over the phone or through a secure Zoom link, reducing potentially unnecessary visits to the emergency department. More than 7,600 patients were assessed by a program physician — with 4,200 of these patients able to manage at home with self-care — in the first eight months of the program.
• Opened 36 new transition beds that will be available for people experiencing homelessness who have been discharged from Edmonton hospital emergency departments.
• Established an integrated operations centre in Calgary to support EMS off-load and placement of patients in hospital (already established in Edmonton, exploring expansion to Red Deer).
• Expanded provincial law enforcement mental health line and rural police and crisis teams to support rural communities.

We shared some of our emergency department successes with the public and media, including:

• Launched Virtual MD pilot program. Health Link 811 callers needing medical assessment can be referred, where clinically appropriate, to a physician to virtually assess them over the phone or through a secure Zoom link, reducing potentially unnecessary visits to the emergency department. More than 7,600 patients were assessed by a program physician — with 4,200 of these patients able to manage at home with self-care — in the first eight months of the program.
• Opened 36 new transition beds that will be available for people experiencing homelessness who have been discharged from Edmonton hospital emergency departments.
• Established an integrated operations centre in Calgary to support EMS off-load and placement of patients in hospital (already established in Edmonton, exploring expansion to Red Deer).
• Expanded provincial law enforcement mental health line and rural police and crisis teams to support rural communities.

We shared some of our emergency department successes with the public and media, including: