Alberta Health Services


Alberta Health Services is the single health authority for the Canadian province of Alberta and the largest integrated provincial health care system in Canada. Headquartered in Edmonton, AHS delivers medical care on behalf of the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Health. It operates over 1000 facilities throughout the province, including hospitals, clinics, continuing care facilities, mental health facilities and community health sites, that provide a variety of programs and services. AHS is the largest employer in the province of Alberta. As of April 2024, AHS served almost 5 million Albertans with a staff of 125,000 staff and 11,600 physicians, and an annual budget of approximately $18 billion. Deputy Minister of Health Andre Tremblay is the interim President and CEO as well as Official Administrator. The Official Administrator is accountable to the Minister of Health and the Premier.
In 2024 Alberta Health Services began transitioning to four separate agencies, or "health pillars." This process is expected to be complete by the autumn of 2025.

Overview

Alberta Health Services reports to Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange with Deputy Minister of Health Andre Tremblay serving as Official Administrator and interim President and CEO as of February 2025. AHS's Board of Directors was dissolved in January 2025 as part of the transition to four separate agencies.
According to the AHS 2022 annual report, AHS' workforce includes over 113,000 employees, 9,500 physicians, 170 midwives and 9,700 volunteers. AHS serves 4.6 million people who reside in Alberta.

History

From 1992 to 2000, Alberta's Conservative Premier Ralph Klein oversaw deep cuts to provincial health as part of his focus on eliminating Alberta's deficit. Klein replaced hundreds of local boards of directors of hospitals, long-term care and public health services, with 17 health authorities based on geographic regions. He also created provincial health authorities for cancer, mental health and addiction services. Per capita spending on health was cut from CA $1,393 in 1992 to $1,156 in 1995. At the same time, Klein eliminated or reduced hours for 14,753 positions in health care. Three downtown hospitals were closed by the Calgary Regional Health Authority—one of the hospitals was leased to an American for-profit health group" and the old "Calgary General Hospital was blown up in October 1998". This left many Calgarians "without access to emergency care in the downtown core." The "controlled implosion of Calgary General Hospital"—the Big Bang—was described as the "dawn of a regionalized, integrated healthcare system in Alberta."
Alberta Health Services, which was established on May 15, 2008, is a quasi-independent agency of the Alberta government with a mandate of public health services throughout the province under the Ministry of Health.
Ed Stelmach, who served as Alberta's premier from December 2006 to October 2011, as leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, introduced major reforms to Alberta's health-care system. On May 15, 2008, Health Minister Ron Liepert announced that as of April 1, 2009, one provincial governance board—the Alberta Health Services Board—would consolidate the "$13-billion-a-year system into one public corporation", replacing Alberta's nine regional health authority boards— Aspen Health Region, Calgary Health Region, Capital Health Region, Chinook Health Region, David Thompson Health Region, East Central Health Region, Northern Lights Health Region, Palliser Health Region, and Peace Country Health Region.
On April 1, 2009, the Health Governance Transition Amendment Act dissolved the Alberta Mental Health Board, the Alberta Cancer Board and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, and completed the transition to Alberta Health Services. Alberta Health Services funding of gender-affirming care for transgender people was also delisted in 2009. It was restored in 2010 after resistance from psychiatrist Lorne Warneke and other advocates.
Prior to these changes, health services in Alberta had undergone several governance reorganizations, which resulted in fewer separate public organizational entities, in 1996, 2003, and 2006. The Ernst & Young December 2019 review said that AHS could save "up to $1.9 billion annually". The NDP opposition called the UCP's proposed changes to AHS, the "Americanization of AHS."
In 2024 Alberta Health Services began transitioning to four separate agencies, under the direction of new health ministries.

Organization

AHS provides health services to some patients in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories, as well as to over 4.3 million Albertans.
Alberta Health Services has been organized so as to separate acute hospital facilities from smaller hospitals and community services, the latter of which are organized into five zones. 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.
In 2024, Alberta Health Services began the process or reorganizing into four health care pillars: Acute Care Alberta, Primary Care Alberta, Recovery Alberta and Assisted Living Alberta.
PillarOperational DateMandate
Acute Care AlbertaApril 1, 2025emergency care, surgeries and specialized treatements
Primary Care AlbertaFebruary 1, 2025day-to-day health care needs
Recovery AlbertaSeptember 1, 2024mental health and addiction support, counselling and bed-based treatment
Assisted Living Albertacirca Fall 2025support for older adults, disabled, and vulnerable populations

Governance

was the inaugural president and chief executive officer of the newly created health "superboard", Alberta Health Services, and served from the spring of 2009 until November 2010, when then-provincial Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky asked him to resign. Significant budget cuts—of about CA $1 billion—were imposed on AHS by Premier Stelmach, soon after Duckett's appointment.
Chris Eagle served as AHS CEO from November 23, 2010, until October 17, 2013.
On June 12, 2013, Minister of Health Fred Horne fired the entire AHS Board over its refusal to cancel executive bonuses. Three days later, Janet Davidson was appointed the AHS official administrator by Minister Horne to act in place of its board of directors. On September 12, 2013, John W. F. Cowell replaced Davidson as the official administrator. AHS has subsequently had Carl Amrhein and David Carpenter as official administrators.
The Alberta Health Services Board was re-introduced, effective November 27, 2015 with Linda Hughes appointed as the board chair.
On April 4, 2022, the AHS Board asked Mauro Chies, Vice President, Cancer Care Alberta and Clinical Support Services, to serve in the role of interim CEO on a temporary basis.
Dr. Verna Yiu served as AHS CEO and president from June 3, 2016, to April 4, 2022.
In 2021, Gregory Turnbull, QC served as board chair, Dr. Sayeh Zielke as vice-chair, and Brian Vaasjo, Deborah Apps, Heidi Overguard, Dr. Jack Mintz, Natalia Reiman, Sherri Fountain, Hartley Harris, Tony Dagnone, OC and Vicki Yellow Old Woman serve as board members.
On November 17, 2022, Dr. John Cowell was appointed Official Administrator for Alberta Health Services by the Minister of Health and replaced the existing board of directors. The Official Administrator has responsibility for the governance of AHS, working in partnership with Alberta Health to ensure all Albertans have access to high quality health services across the province. The Official Administrator is accountable to the Minister of Health and the Premier.
On November 16, 2023, Sean Chilton was named Acting AHS President and CEO. On January 8, 2025, Athana Mentzelopoulos was fired from her position as AHS CEO and replaced by Andre Trembley, who also serves as the Deputy Minister of Health.

Employees

By 2019, Alberta Health Services employs over 103,000 staff and more than 8,200 physicians, including clinical, administrative and support personnel across the province. Staff belong to a variety of professional organizations and associations, including United Nurses of Alberta, several locals of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.

Facilities

By 2010, AHS was maintaining and running a number of different types of facilities and services. These included Cancer care for the prevention, detection, treatment, education and care of cancer patients, as well as to facilitate research of cancer; continuing and long-term care
for the treatment of patients with complex health needs requiring 24-hour on-site services from registered nurses; emergency for immediate care of patients with all types of conditions; hospitals for medical, surgical, or psychiatric care of the sick and injured. There were also laboratories for the processing of medical samples and tests; mental health and addictions services for treatment and care of patients diagnosed with mental health or addiction issues and emergency medical services.
AHS is directly responsible for both ground and air ambulance operations in the province, provided through a mix of both direct delivery and contracted providers.
A wider array of miscellaneous health facilities include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, home care, hemodialysis and others, and also include Public Health Centres which provide services such as prenatal, postpartum, health promotion/disease and injury prevention, bereavement services, communicable disease and school health. They also fund affordable housing for seniors at facilities, such as Silvera for Seniors.
Urgent care services include treating patients with unexpected but not life-threatening issues requiring same day treatment.
AHS also operates X-ray and imaging clinics for procedures such as MRIs, X-rays and other types of scans.