Visitors to Cochrane and Airdrie will have an easier time finding urgent care facilities thanks to new road signs located on highways.
Urgent care road signs will feature a white medical cross on a green background and hours of operation, when applicable. Road signs with a white H on a blue or green background will continue to signify a nearby hospital.
“Urgent care is an important service when we look at the range of health-care options available to Albertans,” said Dan Marchand, provincial director of urgent care for Alberta Health Services (AHS).
“Raising awareness of this service and making it easier to find are vital steps to help Albertans access urgent care.”
Considered the step between a physician’s office and the emergency department, urgent care clinics treat unexpected but non-life-threatening conditions needing same-day attention.
Every urgent care site is open all year and, although hours of operation may vary, they all provide some after-hours service.
“This is a relatively new health-care option in Canada,” said Marchand. “We’re excited to now have nationally approved signage that will help our patients find these facilities.”
Alberta is one of the first provinces to have a formal structure for urgent care and is the first health authority to put forth the need for nationally standardized urgent care signage.
By the end of the year, Albertans can expect to see in-town directional signage, as well as highway signs, directing motorists to the province’s six urgent care centres: Cochrane Community Health Centre; Airdrie Regional Health Centre; Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre; Health First Strathcona (Sherwood Park); Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre (Calgary); and South Calgary Health Centre.
“Urgent care centres are an important and viable option for Albertans and we expect they’ll continue to take pressure off our emergency rooms,” said Lynn Rollins, director of urgent care, rural health and community facilities for the Calgary Zone of AHS.
“They’re particularly important in rural areas where there may not be a hospital or where rural residents can get local care rather than driving into urban centres to access already busy emergency departments. Providing signage for Albertans will help to raise awareness and support high quality care.”
