Medical health facilities and Lab Services Edmonton

Alberta Health Services is the provincial authority which is charged with the development of infrastructure, planning and providing health services for more than nearly 3.5 million inhabitants of Alberta. The Alberta Health Services manages among other things the quality of the services offered at many test lab Edmonton, Calgary and other major cities of Alberta has. It is a people focused organisation and works for the betterment of the current infrastructure and reports back directly to the Minister of Health and Wellness.

With the active involvement of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr. Gene Zwozdesky the Alberta HealthServices have introduced a number of projects for executing the long term plan for the development of health care services in Alberta.

Currently seniors who are living independently in the Grande Prairie and Medicine Hat areas are being asked to test out 3 new services which are technology driven. The first one being wander management system, the second is the personal emergency response program which can detect if the senior had a fall and would immediately alert the care givers in the vicinity to act, the third being the medication management systems where the senior is given reminders to take their medication thus maintain their independence in the process. The AHS understands that continuing care for the seniors of the society who prefer to remain independent is a important step for the future. These technologies will help maintain their independence and yet reassure us that they are continuously in safe hand with medical attention standing by when needed.

The new five year action plan of the Alberta Health Services was announced recently in November and the citizens were apprised of what they can expect from the new plans in the next 5 years.

Further initiates

Initiatives by the AHS has lead to an additional 9000 MRI scans that will be conducted between January and 31st March 2011 which is an increased capacity of 5% over and above the current 166,000 MRI scans that are being conducted currently by AHS through its partners in the whole of Alberta. The increased focus from the AHS and a steady funding assurance has made this possible for the AHS to increase the capacity and reduce the waiting list for patients looking to take the test.

Calgary has the worst possible wait list for MRI so 4700 increased numbers are allocated in Calgary alone. Out of the remaining 3000 has been allotted to Edmonton and the remaining numbers have been spread across the province. Patients requiring MRI scans are divided into category 1, 2, 3 and 4 depending upon their priority requirements. Category 4 being the highest necessity they are given priority and often are not asked to wait. However the increased capacity means apart from priority 4 more of priority 3 patients and those below in the list will also be possible to be accommodated.

Overall increased focus and additional funding and centralization of the services are going to help Albertans to get better medical facilities and access to faster treatments and lesser queues.

However on the down side centralization of clinical testing services has meant that owners of Contract Lab Edmonton and other adjoining areas included are facing the brunt of loss of business. Clinical tests like the Pap smear tests which earlier could have been done in any good clinic are now being centralized into two clinics recommended by the Alberta Health Services. Owners of such clinics suggest that not only the tests would be more expensive now because the older Pap smear tests are being done with and replaced by the now liquid cytology tests but also the test results are going to take more time because of the workload at these two clinics.