Health care overview | |
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Formed | April 1, 2009 |
Preceding agencies |
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Jurisdiction | Government of Alberta |
Headquarters | Edmonton, Alberta |
Motto | Healthy Albertans. Healthy Communities. Together. |
Employees | 109,000 (2017) |
Annual budget | $21.4 billion (2017) |
Ministers responsible |
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Deputy Ministers responsible |
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Parent department | Government of Alberta |
Parent Health care | Alberta Health |
Website | albertahealthservices |
Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the single health authority for the Canadian province of Alberta.
Alberta Health Services delivers medical care on behalf of the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Health through 400 facilities throughout the province, including hospitals, clinics, continuing care facilities, mental health facilities and community health sites, while providing a variety of programs and services.
AHS is the largest single health authority in Canada and is the largest employer in the province of Alberta as well as being the fifth largest single employer in Canada.
Alberta Health Services is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta.
Alberta Health Services was created as a "superboard" announced May 2008 and was effective as of 1 April 2009. This dissolved the following regional health authorities:
as well as the following agencies:
Health services in Alberta have undergone several governance reorganization attempts in recent decades, with successively fewer separate public organizational entities.
Alberta Health Services has articulated three broad goals (access, quality and sustainability) which expand into eight 'areas of focus' (e.g. improving access, fit for the future, learning and improving) and 20 strategic priorities.
Alberta Health Services has been organized so as to separate acute hospital facilities (with separate reporting lines for major tertiary, metropolitan and regional hospitals) from smaller hospitals and community services, the latter of which are organized into five zones (North, Edmonton, Central, Calgary and South). The Calgary Zone, for example, includes some sites and services formerly administered by the Calgary Health Region while other services have been reorganized on a provincial scale.
Edmonton-based Dr. Stephen Duckett was the inaugural president and chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services, taking up the role on 23 March 2009. He was replaced on 23 November 2010 by Dr. Chris Eagle who resigned on 17 October 2013. Vickie Kaminski was CEO from May 2014 until her resignation in late 2015. Dr. Verna Yiu became the CEO on 3 June 2016 after serving as interim CEO following Ms. Kaminski's resignation.
The organization was initially overseen by a board of directors, followed by an official administrator, and most recently, again by a board of directors.