By Alberta Health Services

in response

LETTER: AHS responds to demands and concerns from Central Zone doctors

Mar 9, 2023 | 10:58 AM

EDITOR’S NOTE: The below comments from AHS came in by request from rdnewsNOW and are in response to our story published March 8, 2023: Red Deer hospital expansion group demands province and AHS provide clear transition plan

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Alberta Health Services (AHS) greatly values the work our physicians and healthcare teams do to provide care at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC).

We remain committed to supporting recruitment and retention efforts in surgery to ensure we are there for our patients and families when they need us the most.

In addition to ongoing efforts aimed at retaining and recruiting physicians and staff, we continue to collaborate with provincial partners to address the concerns some surgical specialists have expressed with supplemental payments.

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In addition to ongoing recruitment efforts, AHS has been, and continues to actively work with local surgeons and partners to discuss their concerns and how to best address them. Stipends are only a part of the total compensation for physicians and compensation of physicians is directed by the agreement the government has with the AMA.

AHS is continuing to work with Government on advancing the redevelopment of RDRHC, which will bring not only additional care spaces, but enhancements to patient flow and patient care. Planning is on schedule for redevelopment and expansion, with the design phase anticipated to begin this spring.

We continue to work with our teams on enhancements in a number of areas in the interim until redevelopment is realized. In one example, we are reconfiguring a mixed care unit into two distinct units at RDRHC that provide care for general internal medicine, as well as short stay surgery. RDRHC has not had a general internal medicine unit before, and currently, patients requiring general internal medicine care are admitted to various units within the hospital, which requires care teams to travel to each patient.

In another case, RDRHC is building a specialty program for outpatients that will help ease pressure in areas such as the Emergency Department. RDHC is also increasing the use of day surgery, and is working to maximize the utilization of our ORs close to Red Deer to help in the management of surgical wait lists. Additional ICU beds have also been added at RDRHC.

Provincially, AHS Medical Affairs is implementing 100 new positions of alternative providers (Clinical Assistants, Physician Assistants and some Nurse Practitioners), to support selected programs and services with critical acute care coverage shortages.

Alternative providers support physicians by providing hands-on care to patients under the direction and/or supervision of the physician. These models of care can extend physician capacity.

Care models that integrate Alternative Care Providers contribute to the recruitment and retention of physicians because of a more manageable patient load and improved work/life balance.

As of February 2023, there are 211 IMGs registered as Clinical Assistants and approximately 19 registered Physician Assistants in the province.

Prior to this initiative, there were 6 Clinical Assistant positions for surgery at RDRHC. An additional 16 alternative care provider positions have been approved for RDRHC, including six for orthopedic surgery, three for urology and one for general surgery. Two new CAs have already started, one in orthopedics and one in urology respectively. There will also be additional clinical assistants added to support medical specialties like cardiology and general internal medicine.

With these new positions, Central Zone will have a total of 36 alternate providers. Medical leadership for the Zone and the site continues to work with the surgical teams to recruit additional alternative providers moving forward.

We continue to aggressively recruit for anesthesia, with two new anesthesiologists onboarded and four more coming. We’re also recruiting in rural areas to support increased utilization of rural ORs to not only help reduce surgical wait times, but to bolster the number of surgeons and anesthesiologists throughout the Zone.

While we’re able to currently operate eight ORs at RDRHC, we want to see all nine up and running continuously. In addition to recruiting for anesthesiologists and surgeons we continue our efforts to ensure nursing supports are available. There are seven new specialty trained nurses joining the OR team next month.

Elsewhere for the site, a Cardiologist was recruited in November and two more Internal Medicine specialists will start this summer.

-Alberta Health Services

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or Pattison Media. rdnewsNOW reserves the right to edit submissions for length. Column suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com.