An End to Hours of Waiting: Triage Program Launched in Alberta

 

 

Premier Danielle Smith has announced the implementation of a physician-led triage program across six emergency departments in Alberta. Speaking on a provincial radio show, she confirmed that the initiative became operational on Saturday. The Alberta government announced this program in January—aimed at ensuring the presence of doctors to expedite the assessment of patients in emergency rooms—following the death of Prashanth Sreekumar, a man of Indian origin, who passed away without receiving treatment at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton.

Prashanth, 44, died on December 22 after waiting for approximately eight hours in an emergency room while suffering from chest pain. At the time, the Alberta Medical Association noted that several other patients had also died in Alberta’s emergency departments without receiving care.

The implementation of the program was delayed due to the time required to finalize operational details and physician contracts. During the radio show on Saturday, Smith stated that triage physicians have now been deployed in the emergency departments of six hospitals. They added that patients who do not require inpatient care would be treated promptly and either discharged or transferred to other facilities, thereby avoiding the need for them to wait for hours in waiting rooms.