September 20, 2024
New EMS/ED respiratory strategy to boost patient flow
Demands across the health system are expected to increase this respiratory season. Initiatives have been rolled out to improve patient flow. (more...)
Q&A with the AHS and Recovery Alberta CMOs
AHS and Recovery Alberta Chief Medical Officers came together over Zoom to discuss common questions about Recovery Alberta. (more...)
Recovery Alberta transition FAQs online
AHS has worked jointly with HSAA and AUPE to create FAQs addressing the transfer of employees to Recovery Alberta. (more...)
Build your mental health
Services and resources are available to help you maintain or improve your mental health. (more...)
Changes for AHS mobility users
AHS is changing wireless service providers to Bell Mobility, a transition that will impact all AHS-owned cellular-enabled devices. (more...)
Appointments transitioning to Calgary’s new cancer centre
Cancer patients in Calgary will have appointments at the new Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre after Oct. 25. (more...)
Register for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation events
Join us on Sept. 25 as we mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Visit Together4Health and Celebrating Health for information and to register for events. (more...)
Enhance IPC education tools with your feedback
Infection Prevention & Control seeks to assess the performance of its educational tools through a brief online survey. (more...)
September 20, 2024
As we enter respiratory season, we expect the demands across the health system to increase and there will be further capacity challenges. We will continue to work together and ensure patients receive the best care, and we will continue to our work to improve patient flow.
One initiative that has been rolled out to improve patient flow is the EMS Emergent Offload Process. This process is initiated when the EMS system is at critical capacity, and there are limited or no ambulances available to respond to events, posing a risk to patients in the community. In this process, the EMS and emergency department teams are working together to determine the most suitable patients to be offloaded, enabling EMS crews to return to service in the community.
The new process is just one of several strategies we’ve put in place to support patient flow, including zonal and provincial capacity escalation protocols, continuing to optimize utilization of virtual and community care options, continued focus on non-clinical transport options and increasing the interfacility transport fleet.
We all play a vital role in creating capacity. Every single physician and staff member at AHS can support patient movement and create capacity. Whether staff are reporting on lab results quickly, cleaning patient spaces, planning transfers to other facilities, ensuring patients get a timely discharge, or providing services within the community - we’re all working together to provide excellent patient care.
Sincerely,
Athana Mentzelopoulos
AHS President & CEO
Last week, Dr. Peter Jamieson, AHS Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, had the opportunity to ask Dr. Nicholas Mitchell, Interim Chief Medical Officer for Recovery Alberta, some common questions about Recovery Alberta. While the Q&A was filmed primarily for medical staff, there are topics that will be of interest to other AHS and Recovery Alberta staff. You can watch the video on YouTube. You can navigate to topics of interest by using the chapter topics, outlined below:
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Introduction |
| 1:50 | Vision of Introduction |
| 2:55 | Recovery in the context of mental health |
| 5:06 | Access to services and patient flow |
| 7:55 | IT systems and information management |
| 10:05 | Recovery Alberta value proposition |
| 11:58 | Commitment to working together |
| 13:00 | Focus for the coming weeks for Recovery Alberta |
| 15:58 | Closing remarks |
AHS has worked jointly with unions to create FAQs addressing the transfer of employees to Recovery Alberta:
The FAQs supplement Letters of Understanding signed by AHS and each of the unions.
Visit Recovery Alberta for updates.
Just like our physical health, we need to take proactive steps to support our mental health.
The following resources are available:
For additional support, contact your Employee and Family Assistance Program at 1-877-273-3134. Physicians can contact the AMA Physician and Family Support Program, a confidential 24/7 support line, at 1-877-SOS-4MDS.
Questions? Contact wellness@ahs.ca.
Starting this fall, AHS is changing wireless service providers from TELUS to Bell Mobility. The mobility transition will impact all AHS-owned, cellular-enabled devices: smartphones, tablets, voice-only phones, air cards and cellular modems. All current smartphone and voice-only phone numbers will stay the same following the transition.
All affected devices will need to be manually activated to ensure a successful transition. If you are an owner of an AHS-owned mobile device or you are responsible for a cellular-enabled casual device, you will receive instructions from IT on how to activate. It is important that you do not start the activation process until your activation date.
When your device is moved over to Bell Mobility, your outbound greeting and existing voicemails will no longer be accessible. To avoid losing important voicemails, you will need to save your voicemails before activation.
Questions? Visit the Mobility Transition Project page.
Patient appointment conversion began last weekend in Connect Care for the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, set to open in Calgary next month.
With this transition, patients who have access to the MyAHS Connect patient portal will start seeing the Arthur Child as the location for their upcoming appointments. This will be the first public awareness of the centre's planned Oct. 26-28 clinical opening and the services it will offer.
All move and transition planning activities are on schedule.
AHS is honouring National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 25 through a series of online and in-person educational events.
For one event, special guest Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack will deliver a keynote address to share his story of being a residential school survivor.
Sessions begin at 9 a.m. and take place throughout the day. Visit Together4Health and Celebrating Health for more information and to register for this and other events.
By acknowledging and understanding the truth of the past, we can take steps to move forward towards reconciliation.
Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) seeks to assess the performance of its educational tools: what’s working well and where improvements can be made. Please take a moment to share your input by completing our brief online survey, which will remain open until Oct. 31.
In March 2023, IPC released a set of educational materials for IPC Risk Assessment, with additional tools introduced in this past April. These resources include infographics, a practice support tool, and eLearning modules for both clinical and non-clinical staff, all designed to enhance protection for staff and patients. See Routine Practices.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at IPCSurvStdAdmin@ahs.ca.
