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By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

2024 COMMUNITY REPORT

Sylvan Lake Urgent Care Committee shares 2024 highs and lows

Feb 20, 2025 | 5:10 PM

Sylvan Lake’s volunteer Urgent Care Committee (UCC) was busy last year, fundraising over $79,000 to support the Advanced Ambulatory Care Service (AACS), which saw 20,247 patients in 2024.

Patient numbers are provided to the UCC by Alberta Health Services (AHS), which says the level of demand seen last year may have occasionally required the AACS to pause new admissions to appropriately treat all existing patients by the end of the night.

AHS recognizes this is “not ideal” and says it is continuing efforts to recruit physicians and utilize other skills like those of nurse practitioners.

In addition to increased demand, in 2023 and 2024, the AACS experienced multiple temporary closures due to short staffed shifts. In response to this challenge, the UCC financed the creation of a Health Care Attraction and Retention Team (HART).

HART works alongside AHS in its recruitment efforts to act as a welcoming committee for physicians coming to the area.

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“We know that people who settle into the community and are welcomed and feel part of the community will stay, and that’s the whole key,” says Susan Samson, UCC chair.

Some of the support HART provides includes information on schools in the area for those doctors with children, assistance in finding accommodations, arranging transport from the airport and connecting them with local groups and activities that suit their interests.

While there is still work to be done, Samson says AHS and HART’s efforts have brought six new physicians to the area since HART’s formation in 2023, which has helped ease the strain.

“We don’t ever want to see a closure of that facility, but we’re happy to see it’s trending in the right direction at least,” says Mayor Megan Hanson, adding there are additional doctors expected to begin practicing in 2025 as well.

Samson adds, the six physicians recruited since 2023 have signed five-year contracts with AHS indicating they will work in a family clinic in Sylvan Lake and take regular AACS shifts.

While AACS capacity was sometimes a challenge, fundraising success was certainly the highlight of 2024. The UCC pursued a variety of fundraising efforts last year and received donations, including:

• AHS payroll 50/50: $46,095.06
• Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign: $20,124.61
• Sylvan Lake Lions Golf Tournament: $4,000
• Sylvan Lake Dominos Pizza: $2,000
• Sylvan Lake Ladies Legion Auxillary: $2,500
• Individual donations: $4,450.70

The Smile Cookie Campaign earnings were “quite an amazing feat,” says Samson, as that number represents roughly 20,000 individual cookies that were purchased by the community and distributed by volunteers working the drive-thru. This initiative returns in May and Samson is calling for any volunteers that can donate an hour of their time to the cause.

Funds raised by the UCC are used to purchase medical equipment and services for the AACS. In 2024, the Committee allocated $18,860.29 to replace three treatment chairs used for patients who don’t require a bed for treatment, as wear and tear had made the originals difficult to adequately sanitize.

Otherwise, Samson says the AACS is in good shape as it enters its seventh year, with most of its technology still up to date and in adequate condition.

“At this particular time, there are no requests on the table from AACS and I think it’s twofold: one, they don’t need anything and two, with the changes being proposed by the Alberta government in the restructuring of health care, I think that everybody is pulling back and maybe they aren’t buying anything because things are changing as we speak,” she explains.

The UCC has been operating since 2010 and in its 15 years, Samson says it’s become well respected in the community and strong in its fundraising efforts. For these reasons, and due to the rising demand at the AACS, the UCC may explore the possibility of transitioning to a health foundation model, although that will be determined once AHS restructuring is finished.

“I think the formal arrangement of a health foundation would better serve the volunteers and the donors because there’s continuity in the years as we move ahead,” she explains.

Mayor Megan Hanson also commented on the increasing AACS demand, suggesting that an expansion and re-classification of the facility may be needed in the future, and those options may also need to be looked at at a later date.

The AACS is a care centre in Sylvan Lake for emergent but non-life threatening injuries or conditions, such as minor cuts or burns, muscle and joint strains, bone fractures, or fever in young children. It is not intended for life threatening situations like stroke or heart attack, head trauma, or seizures.

Samson says the facility serves patients from surrounding communities as well, including Eckville, Benalto and parts of Lacombe County.

The UCC’s 2024 Report to the Community was presented in the regular town council meeting on Feb. 10.

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