Hello Hines Health Services subscribers!

Thanks for signing up for our newsletter. We’re pleased to bring you these updates on Hines Health Services and occupational health trends in the community.

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Trends in Health

From Pandemic to Endemic

According to the Government of Alberta, COVID-19 is transitioning from pandemic to endemic. “While there is still work to do to ensure all barriers to vaccine access are minimized, vaccine uptake in Alberta has been higher than most US states and more similar to the UK earlier this year. Countries, such as the UK, with very high vaccination rates are generally seeing much lower rates of hospitalizations and incidence of critical illness despite high case numbers.” Alberta Health Services continues to be the trusted authority for COVID-19 information and updates for the province. For more information, see here.

Wastewater Surveillance

The Alberta Wastewater Surveillance Program tracks levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus in our wastewater. The project provides an early indication of infection trends in a community. Wastewater monitoring is one of many tools in understanding the overall burden of infection in a community. Access this important information here.

Flu Shots

Hines Health Services is providing influenza immunizations for the upcoming winter season. For convenience and accessibility, HHS can arrange for nurses to travel to remote job sites. Book your workplace today!

Curious about this year’s influenza immunization strains? The influenza strains for the 2022-2023 season include:

• A/Victoria/25702019 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus,
• A/Darwin/9/2021 (H3N2)-like virus,
• B/Austria/1356417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus,
• B/Phuket/3073/2013 (B/Yamagata lineage)-like virus.

For more information about the flu shot please visit this link.

PCR and Rapid Antigen Screening

HHS continues to provide PCR and Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Screening for the public. Please visit our website here or contact
appointments@hineshealth.ca.

YMM Parent Article

Read all about our summer intern Prisha Patel! Prisha may still be a high school student, but her intelligence, ambition and entrepreneurial drive make her a fantastic part of the Hines Health Services team. Prisha developed and launched our brand-new e-commerce platform in partnership with Kristi and we look forward to keeping her on as an intern while she completes her high-school education!

Read more.

E-commerce Platform

Speaking of Prisha and the work she’s done for Hines Health Services, our new e-commerce platform has launched! This platform allows us to connect businesses and community members with medical supplies such as COVID-19 rapid antigen tests that would be otherwise difficult to access.

Check it out on the website today.

Support the Oil Barons!

We’re pleased to be sponsoring our local junior hockey team, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, for the second consecutive year! Go Barons, go! Here are some photos from our last visit!

Medical Staffing – National Recruiting Services

We continue to recruit for Health Care Aids, Licensed Practical Nurses, Registered Nurses, and Nurse Managers on behalf of Alberta Health Services. HHS is not seeking to recruit nurses employed by AHS; but, looking to fill contract roles to meet the short-term needs of the health care system in Alberta. If you know someone who is interested, please have them contact recruitment@hineshealth.ca

We’ve Moved!

Our head office has recently relocated to Thickwood Heights! Our new address is:  

Suite #2, 604 Signal Road
Fort McMurray, Alberta
T9H 4Z4

We continue to provide the following timely, accessible, and accurate services for our clients from our new location:

• Drug and Alcohol Testing (NON-DOT and DOT Testing)
• Audiometric Testing
• Spirometry (Pulmonary Function Testing)
• Mask Fit Testing
• Nurse and Physician Medicals
• Independent Medical Evaluations
• Injury Management
• 24/7 call service
• 24/7 on-call nurse

And we are excited to announce we will now be providing the following additional services, all with the same level of professionalism and expertise!

• Functional Capacity Evaluations (1- and 2-day options available)
• Industrial Hygienist Services
• Workplace Sound/Noise Monitoring

More exciting news! We’ve recently implemented a new web-based EMR solution, Med Access, designed to help deliver the highest level of care. Med Access has already improved operational efficiency in the following ways:

• Informed patient care: We can now view patient history and data on a single screen and make informed treatment decisions with interactive graphs and flow sheets to track tests, review lab results and establish patient trends!
• Increased workflow efficiency: Med Access increases workflow speed and minimizes time needed for data entry.
• Remote EMR access: Built on a web-based platform, we can now conveniently connect to Med Access from anywhere we have an internet connection so that clinical information is always readily available.
• Paperless quality: Individual staff members can update files and synchronize workflow with no delays. In this way, it’s also more environmentally friendly than paper-based processes!