Fraser Health

Fraser Health Authority is one of six publicly funded health care Regions into which the Canadian province of British Columbia is divided.

History
Fraser Health was created in December 2001 as part of a province-wide restructuring of health authorities by the new government of Premier Gordon Campbell. It merged three former health regions: Simon Fraser Health Region (SFHR), South Fraser Health Region and the Fraser Valley Health Region (FVHR).

SFHR had been formed in 1996 by the merger of The Fraser-Burrard Hospital Society (Royal Columbian Hospital, Eagle Ridge Hospital and Ridge Meadows Hospital) with the Burnaby Health Region (Burnaby Hospital) and the extended care facilities operated by the Pacific Health Care Society (Queen's Park Care Centre and Fellburn Care Centre).

It is governed by the provincial Health Authorities Act.

Demographics
It has 22,000 employees and serves the region from Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon all the way down the Fraser River Valley to the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. It is the largest health authority by population in British Columbia.

Three rapidly growing communities also included in Fraser Health are Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, and Surrey; all three are served by expanding community-focused acute-care hospitals and related services.

Fraser Health provides health care services for the following communities:

The region's portion of anti-vaccination population occasionally contributes to outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as the 2014 measles outbreak of 320 cases, the most in BC history.

Facilities and Services
Services provided by Fraser Health include primary health care, community home care, mental health and addictions, acute medical, and surgical services.

Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre is new, having opened only in August 2008.

The Royal Columbian Hospital, located in the city of New Westminster, is the oldest hospital in British Columbia and one of Fraser Health's busiest. A major tertiary care facility known for trauma care, neurosurgery and open-heart surgery, the Royal Columbian Hospital has the only program capable of performing cardiac surgery for expectant women in the Province of British Columbia.

Governance
The Board of Directors functions as Fraser Health's governing body, and oversees the conduct of the organization's business through the Executive Team, which is responsible for the day-to-day operations. Board members are appointed by the Minister of Health through the provincial Board Resourcing and Development Office. Prior to the 2001 regionalization, communities elected board representatives.