Health Minister Fred Horne publicly released the report, Review of the Operations of Ground Ambulance Service in Alberta, on March 4, 2013. The report is a thorough review of Alberta’s emergency medical services (EMS) since the transition of services from municipalities to Alberta Health Services (AHS) in 2009.
The report contains five recommendations and 16 required actions focussed on four areas; the 911 call centre system, the EMS dispatch system, the EMS delivery system, and how EMS data is used to ensure quality and safety.
The Alberta government has accepted recommendations two through five, and has accepted recommendation one in principle.
AHS EMS has developed and refined an implementation plan to address the recommendations. The draft plan was submitted to Minister Horne and it has now been approved and is ready for implementation.
To support the full implementation of the plan and recommendations, AHS EMS will be undertaking 21 distinct projects to improve EMS across Alberta. Some of these projects were already well underway when the report was released and other projects are just in the early stages.
To view the HQCA report visit http://www.hqca.ca
