An important message from Dr. Francois Belanger, Chief Medical Officer, and Sean Chilton, Vice President Health Professions and Practice and Information Technology:
In September 2021, we made the difficult decision to delay the planned launch of Connect Care’s Wave 4 and subsequent waves, in order to support patients and healthcare teams as we faced an overwhelming wave four of the pandemic in Alberta. We thank all of you for your patience over this period of time, for your ongoing work to keep preparing for Connect Care, where it was possible, and for being redeployed into areas which desperately needed your help.
Despite this recent delay, Connect Care remains an organizational priority. We promised we would update you with new timelines for launches as soon as we could. We feel we can now revisit Connect Care planning given there has been some reduction of pressure on the health system. Over the past weeks, Connect Care leaders collaborated with zone, provincial and executive leadership to determine our best path forward for the remaining six launches of Connect Care.
The new plans for Connect Care have shifted the existing sequencing and scope for each wave six months into the future. This has extended the overall timelines for Connect Care, which will now be complete in 2024; however, the content of each wave remains the same. The next two waves are outlined below.
Wave 4: May 14, 2022
With 57 sites in the Edmonton and Calgary Zones, Wave 4 will be our biggest launch to date. It includes:
- Calgary Zone:
- Alberta Children’s Hospital, Peter Lougheed Centre, Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatric Centre (and associated forensic services), Calgary Correctional Centre, Calgary Tuberculosis Clinic
- Urgent Care Centres: Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre, South Calgary Health Centre, Airdrie, Okotoks and Cochrane, including Addictions and Mental Health Urgent Care sites and rural ambulatory clinics
- Calgary Zone rural and acute care combined sites, including Airdrie Community Health Centre and Provincial Building, Banff Community Health Centre, Mineral Springs Hospital (Banff), Canmore General Hospital, Claresholm General Hospital, Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre (Claresholm), Chestermere Health Centre, Cochrane Community Health Centre, Didsbury District Health Services, High River General Hospital, Lake Louise Medical Clinic, Nanton Community Health Centre, Oilfields General Hospital (Black Diamond), Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre, Strathmore District Health Centre, Vulcan Community Hospital
- Edmonton Zone: Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Addictions and Mental Health Addictions and Residential programs
- Pharmacy and Diagnostic Imaging: Sites in Calgary and Edmonton, including Central Production Pharmacy
- Alberta Precision Labs: Alberta Children’s Hospital Genetics Services South Lab, Edmonton, including Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Grey Nuns Hospital and Misericordia Community Hospital
Wave 5: November 6, 2022
- Calgary Zone: Foothills Medical Centre (including associated clinics at Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre)
- Central Zone: Acute and combined acute and long-term care sites from the former David Thompson Health Region, including the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury, Sylvan Lake Advanced Ambulatory Care Service, Addictions and Mental Health services in the former David Thompson Health Region, Continuing Care (intake and transition services)
- North Zone: Addictions and Mental Health ambulatory sites from the former Peace County Health Region, Fort Vermillion, High Level, La Crete, Paddle Prairie and Rainbow Lake
- Provincial Programs: CancerCare Alberta North and South, Kidney Care South
- Pharmacy and Diagnostic Imaging: Sites in Calgary and the former David Thompson Health Region
- Alberta Precision Labs: Sites in the former David Thompson Health Region
For more details on launch sequencing, please visit Insite.
As we move forward, Connect Care teams will be working with site and zone operational leaders to schedule required training in early to late November. The training will commence in January 2022.
Connect Care team members redeployed to support the pandemic response will be released from those roles as capacity and demand decreases across the organization. We expect these team members will be returned to their Connect Care roles no later than the beginning of January.
We are thankful for all the work done to prepare us for these next launches by teams across the organization. Your work has set us up for success as we move forward.
We also want to thank you for your patience as we altered our plans to address the urgent needs of Albertans and the healthcare system.
We look forward to these upcoming launches and continuing to improve the care we provide to Albertans through Connect Care.