are one type health care industry health care founded may 2008 founder government of alberta headquarters edmonton alberta area served alberta key people minister of health health board president & ceo number of employees 117 000 2012 website albertahealthservices.ca 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 1 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 . contents 1 history 2 mission and organization 3 executive leadership 4 board governance 5 employees 6 facilities 6.1 south zone 6.2 calgary zone 6.3 central zone 6.4 edmonton zone 6.5 north zone 6.6 rural zone 7 emergency medical services 8 references 9 external links history edit alberta health services was created as a superboard 2 in may 2008 with the controversial abolition of the following regional health authorities 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 peace country health region as well as the following agencies alberta mental health board alberta cancer board alberta alcohol and drug abuse commission 3 4 health services in alberta have undergone several governance reorganization attempts in recent decades with successively fewer separate public organizational entities . 5 6 7 8 mission and organization edit 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 . 9 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 . 10 executive leadership edit edmonton based dr.stephen duckett 11 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 . 12 vickie kaminski was ceo from may 2014 until her 13 resignation in late 2015 . dr. verna yiu became the ceo on 03 june 2016 after serving as interim ceo following ms. kaminski s resignation . 14 board governance edit the organization was initially overseen by a board of directors followed by an official administrator and most recently again by a board of directors . on 12 june 2013 minister of health fred horne fired the entire ahs board over its refusal to cancel executive bonuses . 15 three days later janet davidson 16 was appointed the ahs official administrator by minister horne to act in place of its board of directors . on 12 september 2013 dr. john w. f. cowell replaced davidson as the official administrator . 17 ahs has subsequently had dr. carl amrhein and david carpenter as official administrators . the alberta health services board has been re introduced effective 27 november 2015 with linda hughes appointed as the board chair . 18 employees edit alberta health services employs over 108 000 staff and more than 7 700 physicians 19 including clinical administrative and support personnel across the province . staff belong to a variety of professional organizations and associations including united nurses of alberta 20 several locals of the alberta union of provincial employees 21 and the health sciences association of alberta . 22 facilities edit main article list of hospitals in alberta ahs maintains and runs a number of different types of facilities . 23 these include 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 . labs for the processing of medical samples and tests . mental health & addictions for treatment and care of patients diagnosed with mental health or addiction issues . other 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 to treat patients with unexpected but not life threatening issues requiring same day treatment . x ray & imaging clinics for procedures such as mris x rays and other types of scans . south zone edit the south zone includes major centres such as lethbridge and medicine hat . serving approximately 300 000 albertan s. a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . south zone includes 24 big country health centre oyen bassano health centre bassano bow island health centre bow island brooks health centre brooks cardston health centre cardston chinook regional hospital lethbridge coaldale health centre coaldale crowsnest pass health centre blairmore fort macleod health centre fort macleod medicine hat regional hospital medicine hat milk river health centre milk river piiyami health centre picture butte pincher creek health centre pincher creek raymond health centre raymond taber health centre taber calgary zone edit the calgary zone administrative offices are located in the southland park business complex . calgary zone comprises territory formerly administered by the former calgary health region and includes five major acute care sites hospitals including foothills medical centre peter lougheed centre rockyview general hospital south health campus and alberta children s hospital . serving approximately 1 400 000 albertan s. a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . calgary zone includes 25 canmore general hospital canmore claresholm general hospital claresholm central zone edit the central zone includes major centres such as red deer . serving approximately 450 000 albertan s. a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . central zone includes 26 castor our lady of the rosary hospital castor consort hospital and care centre consort coronation hospital and care centre coronation edmonton zone edit the edmonton zone administrative offices are located in seventh street plaza . edmonton zone comprises territory formerly administered by the capital health region and includes eight acute care sites hospitals in the metropolitan area which include university of alberta hospital edmonton royal alexandra hospital edmonton grey nuns hospital edmonton misericordia community hospital edmonton sturgeon community hospital st. albert leduc community hospital leduc westview health centre stony plain and fort saskatchewan community hospital fort saskatchewan . serving approximately 1.2 million albertans . a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . edmonton zone includes 27 north zone edit the north zone includes major centres such as grande prairie and fort mcmurray . serving approximately 450 000 albertan s. a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . north zone includes 28 athabasca healthcare centre athabasca barrhead healthcare centre barrhead beaverlodge municipal hospital beaverlodge bonnyville healthcare centre bonnyville boyle healthcare centre boyle central peace health complex spirit river cold lake healthcare centre cold lake rural zone edit a large network of hospitals are maintained in the outlying communities of alberta . they include 29 crowsnest pass health centre blairmore daysland health centre daysland devon general hospital devon didsbury district health services didsbury drayton valley hospital and care centre drayton valley drumheller health centre drumheller edson healthcare centre edson elk point healthcare centre elk point fairview health complex fairview fort mcmurray northern lights regional health centre fort mcmurray fort saskatchewan health centre fort saskatchewan fort vermilion st. theresa general hospital fort vermilion fox creek health care centre fox creek grande cache community health complex grande cache grimshaw berwyn community health complex grimshaw hanna health centre hanna hardisty health centre hardisty high level northwest health centre high level high prairie health complex high prairie high river general hospital high river hinton healthcare centre hinton innisfail health centre innisfail jasper seton healthcare centre jasper killam health care centre killam lac la biche william j. cadzow healthcare centre lac la biche lacombe hospital and care centre lacombe lamont health care centre lamont leduc community hospital leduc manning community health centre manning mayerthorpe healthcare centre mayerthorpe medicine hat regional hospital medicine hat oilfields general hospital black diamond olds hospital and care centre olds oyen big country hospital oyen peace river community health centre peace river pincher creek health centre pincher creek ponoka hospital and care centre ponoka provost health centre provost queen elizabeth ii hospital grande prairie raymond health centre raymond red deer regional hospital red deer redwater health centre redwater rimbey hospital and care centre rimbey rocky mountain house health centre rocky mountain house sacred heart community health centre mclennan slave lake healthcare centre slave lake smoky lake george mcdougall healthcare centre smoky lake st. joseph s general hospital vegreville st. mary s hospital camrose st. paul st. therese healthcare centre st. paul stettler hospital and care centre stettler stony plain westview health centre stony plain strathmore district health services strathmore sturgeon community hospital st. albert sundre hospital and care centre sundre swan hills healthcare centre swan hills sylvan lake community health centre sylvan lake taber health centre taber three hills health centre three hills tofield health centre tofield two hills health centre two hills valleyview health centre valleyview vermilion health centre vermilion viking health centre viking vulcan community health centre vulcan wabasca desmarais healthcare centre wabasca wainwright health centre wainwright westlock healthcare centre westlock wetaskiwin hospital and care centre wetaskiwin whitecourt healthcare centre whitecourt emergency medical services edit in addition to primary in patient care alberta health services took over responsibility for all emergency medical services ems from municipalities on april 1 2009 making ground ambulances a responsibility of the provincial government . 30 provincial air ambulance transitioned to ahs in april 2010 . 31 also included in the provincial model of ems are inter facility hospital transfers and ems dispatch . in total ems serves the provincial population of 4 million over an area of 661 848 square kilometres . in 2013 ems averaged about 370 000 ambulance responses annually 32 with approximately 30 % of these being patient transfers between health care facilities and 70 % being emergency responses . ems is provided by the provincial government through a hybrid of direct delivery and contracted services . in 2013 this hybrid consisted of 204 ground ambulance locations . practitioners include approximately 3 000 paramedics emergency medical technicians and emergency medical responders . there are 550 ambulances throughout the province including 278 owned and operated by ahs . ahs contracts 12 fixed wing aircraft to provide 24 hour air ambulance services throughout the province . 5 500 patients were transferred by fixed wing aircraft via contracted air ambulance providers in alberta in 2010 . the shock trauma air rescue society stars air ambulance flew approximately 1 933 missions in 2012 . since 1985 more than 24 000 missions have been carried out . 33 references edit alberta health . alberta health . government of alberta . tories create health superboard . http www.canada.com edmontonjournal news story.html id