The evaluation will consider several perspectives, such as the Alberta Quality Matrix for Health, Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CSS) guidelines and balanced scorecard dimensions of finance, internal business processes, customer/patient and learning and growth.

The Final Evaluation Report was completed June 2009.

Operating Hypotheses
The following Operating Hypotheses provide the foundation or critical success factors for the program and its evaluation plan (from Alberta Cardiac Access Collaborative Evaluation Framework 2007):

• Cardiac service delivery needs to be innovative, collaborative, and systematic in order to meet current demand and future growth
• Provincial systems are needed to maximize efficiencies by assessing existing and future capacity, improving data collection, improving transparency of waiting list management, expanding inter-jurisdictional care options, and coordinating collection of a common minimum data set. (O’Neill, B. MD, et al. (2005) General commentary on access to cardiovascular care in Canada: universal access, but when? Treating the right patient at the right time. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, Vol 21, No. 14, December.)
• Increased collaboration among health service providers and organizations will result in reducing heart disease risk factors, increased use of common clinical practice guidelines, improved information collection and dissemination and ultimately to improve population outcomes. (Canadian Institutes of Health Information (2000), The Changing Face of Heart Disease and Stroke in Canada.) 
• A more informed public expects timely access to comprehensive cardiac care, making efficient referral processes between all of Alberta’s health regions important. Patients also want care to be available close to home resulting in the need for greater integrated regional cardiac care services
• Patient navigation achieves improved patient and health system outcomes through outreach, referral, advocacy and facilitating service coordination
• Patient navigation increases access to health services by enabling better communication between sites, sectors and providers
• Patient navigation reduces the cost of healthcare by reducing the duplication of tests, number of visits, administrative functions, and potentially reduces readmissions and length of stay in hospitals
• A systematic and integrated approach to treatment for acute myocardial infarction is necessary to reduce mortality and improve outcomes
• The expansion of early reperfusion programs will promote a collaborated and coordinated approach to care, allowing non-tertiary care centres and pre-hospital providers access to resources that will improve outcomes
• To meet the needs of heart failure patients in Alberta, a new system must build on the expertise of existing clinics and create new capacity at all clinics, including the local levels
• Optimizing heart failure care in Alberta must include a range of practice models including chronic disease management, primary care networks, shared care arrangements, and interdisciplinary practice
• The proposed Heart Failure system will improve sustainability through appropriate use of echocardiography with the use of the BNP assay, optimize specialist services through maximizing scope of practice within care teams, and producing standardized data for planning, research and evaluation
• Community based clinics will foster first contact accessibility, continuity of care, comprehensive services, interactive learning and system based support for PCPs and family centeredness, and reduce hospital use

For further information, see the Evaluation Framework.