Alberta Health Services pilot program will reach out to those on surgery waitlist

The healthcare agency’s initiative includes phoning patients on wait lists in Calgary over the next few months to update them on their status in the wait list. Patients will be asked to confirm their identity by providing their health number and birth date. The initiative’s part of the AHS' surgical recovery plan to reduce wait times for non-urgent scheduled surgeries. The first phase of the pilot program began in Edmonton, where AHS says it reduced the surgical waitlist in the pilot departments by 5.6%.