November 2008 message

It has been an extremely busy fall for members of the Alberta Health Services Board and executive team, as the restructuring of the province's health system continues to roll out.

We're building the teams that will connect services and processes across the province - sharing innovation, removing barriers and inefficiencies, and integrating care pathways.

This is ground-breaking work, part of a worldwide trend among leading health systems towards consolidation and coordination.

The regional health authority structure that had been in place in Alberta since 1994 was a framework that produced many positive initiatives. Pockets of excellence in care and processes evolved in different service areas, in different regions of the province - but practices and ideas weren't always being shared effectively.

Now, as a single board and a single delivery system, we can ensure best practices are being optimized and integrated across the province.

Challenges to access, quality and sustainability are issues facing health care systems right across Canada - really, around the world.

Our aging population is already creating new demands on the way health care is delivered, and on the number of healthcare professionals available to deliver it. Meeting those demands is going to require that we think differently.

The transition is going to take time. We're bringing together 12 organizations, with more than 95,000 employees and a large range of programs and processes. What we've undertaken is being recognized as one of the largest change initiatives ever undertaken in Canada.

It's an incredible opportunity. To be bold. To question barriers and inefficiencies. To truly put the patient first in everything we do.

Successfully integrating the nine former health regions, as well as AADAC, the Alberta Cancer Board and the Alberta Mental Health Board will have many short and long-term benefits.

• Provincial clinical care pathways will improve patient access to care and services.
• Best practices and health innovation will be efficiently shared across the province.
• Artificial barriers and unnecessary duplication of efforts and processes will be eliminated.
• Use of resources will be better coordinated.

And our collective recruitment and retention initiatives will be more successful.

We have established a health leadership team and developed much of the organizational structure, which was shared with staff recently through a province-wide Telehealth broadcast by CEO Charlotte Robb.

This new structure is designed to enable transformational change. Much work is in progress. For example, Continuum of Care has established working groups that will look at integrating care pathways and improving patient access throughout the province. These are small groups, with aggressive deadlines to meet.

The seven teams are Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors Care, Women and Children's Health, Men's Health, Emergency departments, Lab/Diagnostics, and Rehabilitation.

Each team will bring forward recommendations for short and long-term actions that will integrate services to improve access to these key service areas.

Transition teams are also at work in a number of areas, including procurement, finance, technology and others. These teams will find ways to leverage the scale of a provincewide health care system, and create more streamlined, cost-efficient processes.

Across the province, throughout the system, creative people are looking at existing programs and tackling them from a fresh perspective.

The massive transition currently underway can only be successful through the collaborative energies of those who work within the system, our partners in service delivery, those who access services and programs, government, and Albertans.

I invite you to stay informed as the transition continues, and to be generous with your insights and input. Feedback received through this website is read and distributed to the appropriate Alberta Health Services teams.

Be a part of the journey as we work to provide a patient-focused health care system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans.