(L-R) Dr. John Cowell, official administrator, Alberta Health Services. Jason Copping, Minister of Health. Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta. (Government of Alberta)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Major Overhaul

Province announces AHS reforms aimed at improving patient care

Nov 17, 2022 | 3:22 PM

The Alberta government says immediate actions are rolling out that will lead to faster EMS times, decreased emergency room wait times and reduced surgical wait times for Albertans.

Provincial officials say Alberta has the best front-line health-care workers in the world and Alberta’s government will work to have the right supports in place to ensure Albertans get the care they need when and where they need it. Right now, government officials say the province’s health-care system is unable to meet growing demand and government is taking action to address that.

“Patients are waiting too long across our health system, despite the excellent work of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other front-line staff. We need more-urgent action to improve access. Albertans want accountability within AHS and they want to know that a world-class health system and level of care is available when they need it,” says Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta.

As a first step in the AHS reform plan announced Nov. 17, 2022, Dr. John Cowell is appointed full-time official administrator and will replace the existing part-time Alberta Health Services (AHS) board of directors, says the government. The government says Dr. Cowell will report directly to the Premier and minister of health.

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“We are pleased to have Dr. Cowell leading this important work. He has extensive knowledge of Alberta’s existing health-care system and AHS. I also wish to thank all the members of the AHS board of directors for their service and dedication to Albertans,” adds Jason Copping, Minister of Health.

“I am ready to get to work on behalf of Albertans, building a better system to support patients needing care. I look forward to working with the AHS team and taking tangible actions to drive much-needed change,” states Dr. John Cowell, official administrator, Alberta Health Services.

“AHS welcomes and look forward to working with Dr. Cowell in exploring new and innovative ideas that will challenge AHS to provide the best possible health care for all Albertans. AHS welcomes Dr. Cowell to the organization. We look forward to utilizing his experience and expertise in leveraging new and innovative means to continuously improve our services as a health provider to Albertans,” says Mauro Chies, interim CEO, Alberta Health Services.

“As the second largest health-care provider in Alberta’s integrated health system, we are proud to serve Albertans as a trusted partner. We share in the goal of ensuring timely, reliable and compassionate care. We welcome the government’s clear objectives and direction and look forward to working with Dr. John Cowell as he brings his considerable knowledge and expertise to support these positive changes,” shares Patrick Dumelie, CEO, Covenant Health, Covenant Care, Covenant Living.

“CPSA is committed to supporting the Government of Alberta and Albertans by working closely with Dr. Cowell and our partners at Alberta Health Services in the delivery of safe, high-quality care,” says Dr. Scott McLeod, registrar & CEO, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta.

“The Alberta Continuing Care Association welcomes the opportunity to work with Dr. Cowell and Alberta Health Services to help improve patient care for Albertans. By utilizing home care and accessing beds in more appropriate care settings such as supportive living and long-term care, our sector is part of the solution,” says Wayne Morishita, executive director, Alberta Continuing Care Association.

“The Rural Health Professions Actions Plan is committed to working with government and all its partners to continue to improve Alberta’s health-care system, particularly for those living in rural and remote Alberta,” adds Tracy Sopkow, CEO, Rural Health Professions Actions Plan. “All Albertans will benefit from strengthened EMS services, shorter waits in our emergency departments and efforts to maximize the current surgical capacity in our system, especially in rural Alberta. We look forward to partnering with the government and AHS to advance our system’s outcomes for the benefit of all Albertans.”

The government says Dr. Cowell will work directly with Mauro Chies, the interim AHS CEO, to address four goals:

Improve EMS response times

Albertans experiencing a health-care emergency are currently waiting too long for Alberta’s highly trained and professional paramedics and EMTs to arrive to transport them to hospital, say government officials. Albertans’ concerns are not about the quality of care they receive, but the length of time it takes to receive that care, they point out. To be sure that Albertans have better access to mobile emergency medical care, Dr. Cowell is expected to work to accomplish four main things:

• Fast-track ambulance transfers at emergency rooms so paramedics are available for more calls.
• Use more appropriate modes of transportation for non-emergency inter-facility transfers.
• Empower EMS dispatch to step-down calls from 911 to Health Link based on patient need.
• Empower paramedics to triage whether or not a patient needs to be transferred to an ER by ambulance.

In order to track the progress made with EMS response times and measure the initiatives’ success, Alberta Health is expected to look at four metrics:

• time from a call to 911 to when the ambulance arrives
• patient offload times at an ER
• number of less urgent calls handled by an ambulance
• number of calls ‘stepped-down’ from 911 to Health Link

Decrease ER wait times

The government says Albertans in need of medical care are facing unacceptably long wait times at local emergency rooms. Thanks to the expertise and compassion of doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals, the government says Albertans receive excellent care, but it is taking too long to get it. Alberta’s government says it has charged Dr. Cowell with improving access to medical treatment through two primary ways:

• Bringing in additional health professionals to improve on-site patient care and management.
• Transferring an increased number of patients from hospital beds into more appropriate care settings such as home care, long-term and continuing care facilities.

In order to measure the success of these initiatives, the government says it will track the time it takes from the moment a patient enters an ER to when they receive the appropriate level of care they require.

Reduce wait times for surgeries

The government says about 68,400 Albertans are currently awaiting surgery to help improve their health and their quality of life. That number is said to be down from the 81,000 Albertans who were waiting at the height of the pandemic but is still higher than the pre-pandemic level of 68,000. To ensure each one receives the procedure they need in a more timely fashion, the government says Dr. Cowell has been charged to work with AHS to significantly increase surgeries at underutilized hospitals, mainly in rural areas, and at chartered surgical facilities.

To measure the success of this initiative, Alberta Health is anticipated to consider the following metrics:

• utilization rate of operating rooms at AHS hospitals
• proportion of surgeries occurring within clinically acceptable wait times
• surgery wait times

Develop long-term reforms through consultations with front-line workers

The government says fixing Alberta’s health-care system requires both immediate action and long-term work. While some results are expected to be seen more quickly, for the long-term sustainability of Alberta’s health-care system, more fundamental changes are required, says the Province. Officials say Dr. Cowell has been charged with ensuring that for years and generations to come, Albertans will be able to rely on their publicly funded health-care system being there when and where they need it. To do that, Dr. Cowell is expected to work on the following initiatives:

• Restore decision-making to the local level and local health professionals.
• Incentivize regional innovation to provide more medical services.
• Attract substantially more health-care professionals to Alberta.

The government says long-term reforms will mean that results are not immediately available. However, progress and success on developing long-term reforms will be tracked by health service wait times and health professional-to-population ratios, says the government.

As the official administrator of AHS, the government says Dr. Cowell will be able to drive much-needed change faster than through the current AHS governance model while keeping the health of Albertans as the top priority.

The government says Dr. Cowell will report to Albertans in 90 days on the progress made through the AHS reform plan.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley made the following statement in response to Danielle Smith’s health care announcement:

“Today’s announcement does nothing to get Albertans a family doctor, nothing to address the specific calls from frontline paramedics to reduce wait times, and nothing to get children’s medication in the hands of Alberta parents.

“This new round of chaos Danielle Smith is inflicting on health care will make the situation worse. Health care workers deserve leadership that will listen to them and support them.

“Danielle Smith has absolutely no mandate to create the chaos, cost, and conflict that today’s announcement will generate.

“The dismissal of the AHS board today is nothing more than bad political theatre or as Danielle Smith herself said when the Redford government did the exact same thing: it’s window dressing.

“An Alberta NDP government will go straight to the heart of the problem.

“We will bring real resources to the frontline and reverse the years of UCP cuts. We will work collaboratively and respectfully with health care professionals. We will launch the largest health care recruitment campaign in the history of our province. We will end the chaos and bring stability to our hospitals, our ambulances, and to primary care.

“Premier Smith is following the age-old strategy when it comes to Alberta health care, using Alberta Health Services as the government’s scapegoat,” adds Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “Rather than accepting responsibility for the multiple crises facing our public health care system, the premier is treating AHS and its leadership as a political shield to deflect from the UCP government’s own responsibility for Albertans’ health care.”

“AHS has responded remarkably throughout the pandemic, even with worsening staffing shortages throughout our public health care system. The government repeatedly asked for more from Alberta’s health care system and workers without providing extra support,” continues Gallaway. “Regardless of the premier’s misleading rhetoric on the matter, AHS was able to more than double Alberta’s temporary ICU capacity, even while the government allowed the pandemic to spread unchecked.”

“Thousands of AUPE members work on the front-lines of health care in this province,” says AUPE President Guy Smith. “They need support, security, and stability, not the chaos that could result from a change in administration and direction.”

“It is good to hear the premier wants more decisions made regionally, at the local level. But those decisions must include input from the front-line workers who know what the real issues are and what should be done,” says Smith.

“Bringing in more health care professionals to boost staffing levels is a welcome initiative as well, but more needs to be done to help staff who are already here. We must do more to retain staff and prevent burnout.”

“Privatization is not the antidote for what ails our health care system. If the new premier wants to help, she must start by investing in public health care for all, not just those who can pay thousands of dollars to jump the queue.”

“It was encouraging to hear the premier and the minister state their intention to address issues we have been raising for the last three and a half years,” says Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) President, Mike Parker. “Premier Smith echoed our stance that Alberta needs to be doing more to retain the people we have and to increase the numbers of health professionals we are training and recruiting.”

“Don’t forget, a few months ago, this government was trying to impose double-digit wage rollbacks on our members,” adds Parker. “They are currently transitioning thousands of lab
professionals to a private employer, putting their pensions at risk. They are doing harm right now by ignoring science and creating doubt about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines.”

“Alberta Health Services needs to become a preferred employer,” concludes Parker. “We are competing for health professionals with other provinces that are offering wage increases and
actively recruiting our members.”