More turmoil in Alberta Health Services as latest president and CEO departs
Athana Mentzelopoulos is out just over a year into a four-year contract
Alberta Health Services — which the province is dismantling as it forges ahead with its full-scale and controversial overhaul of the health system — is facing even more uncertainty as yet another leader departs.
Athana Mentzelopoulos, hired just over a year ago, is out as president and CEO. An interim leader is now in place.
It's the latest departure for AHS, which has seen a revolving door of people in the top job over the last three years.
"It''s not good to have all this instability in the health system," said Dr. Braden Manns, a professor of health economics at the University of Calgary and former interim vice-president at AHS.
Verna Yiu was ousted in April 2022, after a lengthy tenure. Mauro Chies had a brief stint in the position. Then Sean Chilton took over for a month, in an acting capacity, before Athana Mentzelopoulos was hired in December 2023.
Deputy minister Andre Tremblay was appointed this week to step in on an interim basis, the provincial government announced on Wednesday.
The turmoil at the top hit a fever pitch in late 2022, when Premier Danielle Smith fired the AHS board and appointed John Cowell as official administrator. He, too, is gone.
Manns was surprised by the timing of the latest departure.
"There's going to be a huge transition happening as this government carves out the integrated health-care system into four parts. So one might have thought that it would have made sense to maintain some consistent leadership through that transition," he said.
"But certainly a CEO leaving … literally months before an expected transition, suggests that there was trouble in paradise."
The Alberta government is in the process of completely restructuring health care in the province and creating four new health-care delivery organizations.
AHS will be relegated to the role of hospital service provider, answering to Acute Care Alberta — one of the four new pillars — once it's up and running
NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman said the United Conservative Party government is causing chaos.
"They're really keen on firing and hiring CEOs when all Albertans want are more nurses, family doctors and less wait for important surgeries," she said.
New leader 'best suited' for transition, government says
AHS deferred all questions from CBC News to the government.
The provincial government won't confirm whether or not Mentzelopoulos was fired.
"Athana provided strong leadership in her time as president and CEO, and we thank her for her efforts and wish her well," a statement from the health minister's office said.
"While we have made significant progress in our goal of refocusing the health-care system … we feel that Tremblay is best suited to help lead Alberta Health Services through its transition from a regional health authority to a hospital-based service provider organization."
The province said Tremblay will oversee AHS while a permanent leader is recruited. The spokesperson said the provincial government expects that candidate will have "experience in large-scale, hospital-based health care service delivery."
Severance costs mount
The frequent leadership changes are proving costly for Alberta.
AHS compensation disclosures reveal Yiu's termination resulted in $660,000 in severance pay and Chies was entitled to nearly $1.4 million.
Mentzelopoulos is not listed on the so-called sunshine list but a four-year AHS contract, published online, reveals her base salary was $583,443 per year.
Depending on the timing and circumstances of her departure — and if she was terminated without just cause — she could be entitled to one year's salary in severance.
"This is paying someone for not doing something.… So I think to the average Albertan this is going to be problematic," said Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor in the law faculty and Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
"It is a significant amount of money. If you think about what you might have gotten for that money in terms of family doctor visits or blood tests run at labs, it's very significant. A lot of small ticket items can be provided for what we're paying in severance."
Manns also worries about the implications for patients.
If you look at jurisdictions with similar health systems in the United Kingdom, he said, the ones with leadership stability fare better than those without.
"They have better health outcomes, better experiences, shorter wait times for surgeries — things that patients would notice," said Manns.
"We need to stop shuffling portfolios, stop shuffling leaders around, put competent leaders in place, make sure the whole health-care system works together, and start to implement a long-term plan."
This week, the provincial government also announced its plan to appoint Dr. Chris Eagle as chair and interim president and CEO of Acute Care Alberta.
Eagle, whose contract has yet to be finalized, served as president and CEO of AHS between 2010 and 2013. His appointment is expected to take effect once the new health-care organization becomes a legal entity on Feb.1.
Acute Care Alberta is expected to begin operating in the spring.
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