Alberta Health Services Board

5 posts / 0 new

Thu, 2009-02-26 17:54

Yibpl

My family and I have had our first exposure to health care under Alberta's new amalgamated mega-region Alberta Health Services Board and it has not been a pleasant experience.

The ER at Rockyview General Hospital now resembles something out of the movies, a bankrupt charity ward in a violent American inner-city. People are packed into the waiting room and on down the hall at varies stages of distress and treatment. The vending machines and water fountain are gone and that nook is now being used to examine patients; "privacy" afford by a curtain which does not cover the entirety of the opening. After being admitted my wife was at one point brusquely told she would have to sit in a chair all night because there were no beds available. (I do not even want to begin to describe our experiences at the Peter Lougheed Center.) I do not think I have ever been exposed to such an affront to human dignity in my life!

Thu, 2009-02-26 18:07

HeywoodFloyd

My baby was born at the Sturgeon Community Hospital (St. Albert, a suburb of Edmonton) on the weekend and we couldn't have had a better experience. We had a private room, I was able to stay overnight twice, the nurses were great, the anesthist was excellent, and the hospital was great.

We love healthcare in Alberta.

Fri, 2009-03-06 15:34

Yibpl

Quote:
[size=18]Wait times in Alberta ERs soaring: EPA[/size]

The Emergency Physicians Association is claiming that [b]wait times in Alberta emergency rooms have soared.[/b]*

Close to 200 health care professionals and administrators gathered in Edmonton to address [b]ER wait times[/b] that at times, can [b]average six hours.[/b]*

"The crisis that we face when it's at its worse is the fact that we can't get our patients from the waiting room into the emergency department," said Dr. Felix Soibelman, with the Edmonton Emergency Physicians Association.

Ed Stelmach personally asked Alberta Health to look into wait times, so now the province has created a new emergency department team.

[b][size=18]Stelmach admitted the province should have looked at the issue earlier[/size], given the fact that Alberta spends the most per person for health care in Canada.[/b]*

Other provinces have already established an ER waiting time benchmark of four hours, but Alberta Health will not give time lines of when changes will be announced or even if those changes would include benchmarks.

With files from Kevin Armstrong

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090305/edm_er_090305/20...
[size=9]*emphasis mine[/size]

Fri, 2009-03-06 18:36

Noise

Yibpl - Emergency rooms in Alberta have been known as a nightmare for the past...well, quite sometime. Heywood's experience seems to be the more consistant view of the hosptials outside of emergency (and displays where the 'given the fact that Alberta spends the most per person for health care in Canada.*' comes from). The last study I saw was pointing at the major lack of family and clinic doctors, which ultimately had people going to the Hospital's emergency ward when there was no need... I'll see if I can find the article, I recall it saying somewhere in the range of 90% of emergency visits were unnessacary if the patient had access to a regular doctor instead. That volume brings emergency to a crippling halt.

You are right that something needs to be done to correct the issue. SteadyEddy won't be helping the situation any though.

Fri, 2009-03-06 20:25

triciamarie

HeywoodFloyd wrote:

My baby was born at the Sturgeon Community Hospital (St. Albert, a suburb of Edmonton) on the weekend

Hey HeywoodFloyd, congratulations!

A daughter I presume, Dr. Floyd?