Focusing on both the more immediate and longer term needs makes for a challenging but meaningful task for the Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation.
Speaking after the foundation’s annual meeting last week, chairperson Ben Friesen noted that supporting the ongoing expansion of the hospital is obviously their big focus right now.
“It just continues to give you so much momentum, and everybody is so happy to see it going and it has been going so well,” he said.
Friesen noted it continues to be very encouraging to see that so many are getting involved in ways big and small to help support the project.
“People got on board right from the start … when we first started, it was very daunting to us,” he said. “But once we started going, and we did have a good plan … the community just was behind it like 100 per cent right from the start.
“You don’t want to say it’s an easy sell … but it is a very rewarding commitment to be working on. It’s just something that people really buy into,” Friesen added. “This whole area can become a wellness centre over here. It’s really nice to have it regional.”
In the meantime, Friesen said they also need to maintain their focus on their ongoing initiatives, such as supporting palliative care and spiritual care at the hospital.
“The expansion is sort of the exciting part of it, but we definitely have to continue,” he said. “The foundation was originally put in place to support programs like the palliative care and the spiritual care and some X-ray equipment needs.”
And the foundation is in a good position to keep building that support with a financial report that showed a surplus of just under $1.3 million for the fiscal year ended March 31.
The revenue of about $4.7 million includes $2.5 million in designated donations, and the big driving factor behind that success is the hospital expansion.
Kyle MacNair, who is the implementation lead for clinical programming with Southern Health-Santé Sud, provided a brief update on what had been estimated to be a $100 million project that is being completed in phases.
It will include 24 additional acute care inpatient beds, expanded emergency department, new state-of-the-art operating room, expansion of the cancer care unit, dedicated space for palliative care services and a level two nursery designed to provide services to premature newborns with complex feeding needs.
The new community services building will enable existing community services to be relocated from the existing hospital space. Those services in the new building will include public health, midwifery, home care services, children and youth rehabilitation services, and a centre for hope healing garden and healing courtyard.
Once all of that has been accomplished, work will then begin on renovation of the existing hospital space.
As of last month, work on the new in-patient unit and the energy centre was mostly complete, shared MacNair, who noted the energy centre is especially vital to ensure the hospital is fully powered.
“They are monsters that are going to provide the backup power,” said MacNair, who also showed some interior shots showing the new in-patient unit looking pretty finished.
“The community services building still looks a little rough … not as far along,” he noted.
“While all of this is going on, renovation planning is heavily underway,” McNair added. “The end is in sight. We are going to have an eco-cardiography unit, so that is very exciting. This is something that’s going to bring a lot of care closer to home.”
Eunice Suderman, who is a palliative care nurse at BTHC, also offered some comments on that program.
“It’s important to me to deliver compassionate and high quality care to each person,” she said. “We work as a team with doctors and home care workers and volunteers and spiritual care and social workers and physiotherapists and occupational therapists … it’s just a whole team that works together.
“By supporting a palliative care program here at Boundary Trails Health Centre, you are supporting a program that strives to include a patient’s quality of life.”
As the expansion project progresses, the foundation will continue to be in close contact with hospital directors to keep up with the equipment needs, Friesen emphasized.
“We really want to make sure that we do our due diligence and give us truly the equipment needs that are required,” he said. “And as the expansion part gets opened up, there will be some other equipment needs.”
Friesen also noted they are working on developing a longer term strategic plan.
“This foundation, in our view, it has stepped up to a different level. We’re now not working with a few thousand dollars—we’re working with millions of dollars of community money, and we want to make sure that these funds are properly spent and properly put to use, so we’re working on getting some outside help with a strategic plan … something that’s not just for this year, next year, but goes beyond …”
“We need a plan in place that the new board members coming on can see what the foundation is here for because it’s not just this one expansion,” he said. “This really stepped us up to another level. It was a learning experience for everyone of us on the board.”
