By Wendy Lamond
What started as a patient room refresh project in the East wing of the St. Marys Memorial Hospital ended up being a complete patient wing rebuild that was officially opened Monday, July 22 with the ribbon cutting ceremony looked on by staff, Foundation board members and local dignitaries.
HPHA Board chair John Wilkinson welcomed the crowd and shared the importance of having all four hospitals working together in the Alliance to attract young nurses and doctors to our area and making it a wonderful place for the staff to work.
Mayor Al Strathdee gave a reminder of how lucky we are to have our hospital and gave thanks to everyone who volunteered their time, donated and helped in making the renovation come to fruition.
Many people helped in making this happen from Clinical stakeholders, infection control, architects, patient partners and hospital experts to make decisions on what was needed to improve the wing.
It was decided that the rooms needed to be larger, washrooms had to have more space, accessibility issues had to be looked at, infection control standards met, lighting and heating issues fixed.
Only a couple of rooms previously had a mechanical lift but with the upgrade, all rooms will have this piece of equipment that will help the staff transport patients from bed to wheelchair.
Staff had a big input into what needed improvement. Items such as side tables on wheels that can be moved for more accessibility to the patient were put in, as well as clocks that are synchronized to one main centre helping with medication dispensing without worrying about battery issues.
An Isolation room was created for the safety of patients and staff. The need came to light during COVID; however, this was already on the project planning radar. The room has a large washroom with a wheel-in shower and a mechanical lift that goes on a track from the bed to the washroom.
One other major change with the renovation was the creation of the manager’s office being located within the wing. Previously it was in a different area leaving manager Arlene Lanting feeling too distant from where she was needed and wanted to be.
Project manager for the hospital, Francesco Sabatini, took those in attendance on tours to show the changes and upgrades.
Chair for the St. Marys Healthcare Foundation, Amanda McCurdy spoke on behalf of the foundation and shared the excitement of being able to support the HPHA with a total of five million dollars on what was originally a three-million-dollar capital campaign.
She also went on to thank the project team, steering committee, the staff that gave their input on design, their campaign chair Ken McCutcheon and foundation chairs Cindy Bilyea and Pat Craigmile for their unbending belief in our community.
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