Rural care

As part of our Rural Health Strategy, Covenant Health studied eight rural communities with a goal of establishing a health services plan to enable the delivery of safe, effective, efficient, appropriate, accessible and coordinated services. The 2010 report was informed by an extensive research process and extensive consultations with community representatives, physicians, local health workers and Alberta Health Services (AHS) leadership. Common service priorities identified across the eight sites included enhancements to:

specialty and diagnostic services
ambulatory care services
seniors' care and supportive living
mental health and addictions
primary care, primary care networks and chronic disease management
palliative care

For each of the eight communities, detailed service initiatives have been recommended, providing the basis for joint planning and collaboration among Covenant Health sites, AHS and community partners. The research also identified the need for overarching strategies in such areas as:

recruitment
local area service planning
transportation services
telehealth
facility-service alignment

We continue to collaborate with AHS to develop and implement action plans to meet the healthcare needs of people living in rural Alberta based on geographic priorities and stakeholder engagement.

Covenant Health would like to acknowledge that what we refer to as Alberta is the traditional ancestral territory of a diversity of Indigenous peoples and home to Treaty 6, 7, and 8. We honor the Blackfoot Confederacy – Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika, the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, the Tsuu T’ina Nation and the Métis People of Alberta. This includes the Métis Settlements and the Six Regions of the Métis Nation of Alberta within the historical Northwest Métis Homeland. We recognize and give thanks to the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit who have lived in and cared for these lands for generations, all who continue to grace these lands, and all future generations. We are grateful for the traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders who are still with us today and those who have gone before us. We make this acknowledgement as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on or are visiting.