April 8, 2021
GRANDE PRAIRIE - Alberta Health Services (AHS) is preparing to launch Connect Care Wave 3, in the west side of the North Zone this weekend.
In total, there are 31 one sites launching in Wave 3, in full or partially, including the following sites:
AHS has carefully and comprehensively planned each of our three Connect Care launches that have occurred to date. This work has included reducing activity at our impacted sites to ensure we’re able to safely provide care during launch activities. With that in mind, AHS has temporarily reduced capacity at some of our Wave 3 sites, as Waves 1 and 2 did during their respective launches. All Wave 3 sites remain open and continue to accept patients.
AHS site and zone leadership are regularly monitoring capacity at these sites. In the event that capacity is reached at some of these sites, AHS has plans in place to support additional patient admissions with the safe transfer to an alternative AHS care centre as needed. Our priority is ensuring patients receive the most appropriate level of care in the most appropriate place.
To support a successful launch, additional, experienced staff have gone to every launching community from other areas of the province. It is critical to have experienced staff and physicians available in person to work side-by-side with those who are new to Connect Care, ensuring a seamless transition in the days before and after Connect Care goes live at each site. These individuals will help support patients, staff and physicians as we implement the new information system, which is the foundation of Connect Care.
Connect Care is a new way of using and sharing health information to improve patient care. Albertans’s health records from AHS, its subsidiaries and partners will be accessed through a common system.
“Eventually, a patient’s health information will be accessible from any AHS location in the province and will move with the patient through their care journey. It will give a patient and their healthcare team a more complete picture of their health history, access to consistent information on best practices, resources at their fingertips and the ability to communicate with patients and each other more easily,” said Dr. Francois Belanger, Chief Medical Officer, AHS.
When fully in place, Connect Care will be wherever AHS provides care or is responsible for a person’s record of care, including hospitals, AHS clinics, continuing care facilities, cancer centres, addiction and mental health facilities, AHS-run community health sites, Carewest, CapitalCare and Covenant Health sites, Alberta Precision Laboratories locations, and DynaLIFE locations.
Connect Care is being launched deliberately and cautiously in phases, with nine implementation waves in total that started in late 2019 and will be completed in 2023.
Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Its mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans.
