Table of contents

Overview

Improving Alberta’s health system and ensuring its long-term sustainability includes looking at services that aren’t directly related to bedside care. The Alberta Health Services (AHS) performance review examined non-clinical support services, many of which are outsourced:

  • food and housekeeping
  • laundry and linen
  • protective services
  • corporate areas like human resources and finance

We are working to make the corporate back office more efficient and continue to explore options for non-clinical support services in order to find savings that can be reinvested in front-line clinical care.

AHS review recommendations

The AHS performance review report made 10 recommendations (numbers 35-44 of 57) to build on efficiencies already being found in three areas:

  • non-clinical support services
  • corporate and back office services
  • the supply chain

Non-clinical support services

  1. Establish a dedicated function within AHS to support the qualification, service design, procurement, negotiation and management of alternative service delivery partnerships.
  1. Develop an enterprise-wide alternative service delivery strategy and actively pursue opportunities to reduce costs and improve services through outsourcing non-clinical support services.
  1. As part of, or in parallel to, the alternative service delivery strategy, fully assess opportunities to optimize and strengthen existing non-clinical support services.

Corporate and back office services

  1. Explore opportunities to optimize corporate programs to achieve or exceed performance levels of comparative organizations.
  1. Develop a corporate automation program and pursue automation opportunities across HR, Finance, Contracting, Procurement and Supply Management (CPSM), IT and others.
  1. *Aggressively pursue revenue generation initiatives in non-clinical, auxiliary categories in alignment with peer organizations.

*Parameter: Consider increased accommodation rates for long-term care and designated supportive living only to the extent that they enable patient choice and low-income patients are protected.

  1. Look to refine AHS’ overall budgetary process to ensure departmental budgets are aligned with the actual operating model of each department, along with instituting an immediate review of discretionary spending controls to drive immediate savings.

Supply chain

  1. Improve strategic sourcing to realize cost savings, including reducing the number of suppliers per category and converting purchases currently not made on contract to contract.
  1. Continue to drive improvements to the provincial planning and materials management functions and integrate supply chain functions across AHS that are not currently within CPSM.
  1. Consider integrating the contracting and management of capital equipment and capital construction into the CPSM function.

More recommendations

See the other AHS performance review recommendations: