Capacity, quality of care paramount for health officials
Lakeshore General Hospital is expanding, and with it, the possibilities of better care.
Construction on Ashern’s hospital started at the beginning of 2023 and will continue until the spring of 2025 when the project is expected to finish. The expansions will add 12 new inpatient beds to the facility, for a total of 26; make each patient room a single bed room; create an en-hanced palliative care room with an attached family room; add a reverse pressure isolation room that can accommodate bariatric patients; add a dedicated spiritual spacel; add a rehabili-tation assessment room; create a central care station; add a new tub and bathing room for bariatric patients; and redevelop the emergency department to have 13 working spaces instead of the current six.
Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA) director of health services, Candace Blahey, said they can’t properly service the many communities in their catchment area with 14 inpatient beds, so they saw the need to add more.
IERHA executive implementation lead of the Clinical and Preventive Services Plan, Paul Ber-nard, said with people returning to their homes in the area after the flood displaced them, the population has risen considerably, and the growth in population has effects for the healthcare system.
“Twelve new beds will allow for more inpatient admissions and being able to care for more people closer to their home,” said Blahey.
Changing every room at Lakeshore General Hospital into a single bed room, too, will give each patient at the hospital the privacy they need. Blahey said having one bed per room will de-crease the movement in the facility for those needing isolation. Plus, each room in the hospital will have a window, giving each patient the natural light that can brighten their stay.
“One of the lessons COVID has taught us as well is single bed rooms help (decrease) the spread of illness,” said Bernard.
Lakeshore General Hospital already has a palliative care room with an attached room for fami-ly. The new one, however, will be more spacious and have more amenities so more family members can be comfortably present while their loved one receives end of life care.
“This allows for that end-of-life connection and for everyone to be there,” said Blahey.
IERHA currently only has two reverse pressure isolation rooms — one in Beausejour and one in Selkirk. Blahey said the reverse pressure room is a space where someone at high risk or with a highly contagious illness can be safely. The environment is safe and air controlled, giving the patient and the medical staff a safe outcome.
The new space in Ashern’s hospital will also be able to accommodate bariatric patients, mean-ing they’ll have more space in it.
“Having a bariatric space is really important in terms of dignity and patient-centred care,” said Bernard.
For bariatric patients, the hospital is also adding a bathing room with a larger tub where they can sit and enjoy their bath instead of having a sponge bath or a shower.
To build on patient-centred care, the health authority is adding a spiritual space to the hospital, something Blahey and Bernard said is extremely important to have.
“You want to be inclusive,” said Blahey. “You want all the communities to feel safe when ad-mitted to the hospital or visiting family members. It helps with the holistic approach and pro-motes healing.”
Bernard added that spiritual healing is becoming part of the entire health journey, so having a dedicated space for it will benefit everyone in the hospital.
The new rehabilitation assessment room is exactly what it sounds like: a dedicated space for medical professionals to get patients back to their baseline or to determine their new one. There, patients can complete their rehabilitation in privacy, no longer having to do it in the hallway or their hospital room.
Bernard said rehabilitation is becoming an alternative to opioid and narcotic prescriptions, meaning this room could reduce prescription numbers as well.
The largest part of the Lakeshore General Hospital expansion is the emergency department renovation.
“Currently, the emergency room is way too small for the number of people it sees,” said Blahey.
There are six spaces to care for patients there currently — the renovation will make that num-ber 13.
“Hopefully this will allow us to take the stretcher out of the hallway and be able to promote a more private environment for patients,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the delivery of more care in the community and surrounding communities.”
Bernard added this addition will help the hospital to recruit and retain emergency department experienced nurses and physicians, which will allow them to provide more care for community members.
“When there are local patients that are in a Winnipeg hospital post-surgery or post-acute ill-ness and they’re ready to be discharged to another hospital, these new beds allow them to come home sooner and be closer to their family and community.”
To stay up to date with the progress of the Lakeshore General Hospital expansion, go to www.ierha.ca/about-us/capital-construction-projects.
