The scope of the emergency department (ED) expansion originally planned with the Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) expansion has essentially doubled. That from Kyle MacNair, Southern Health-Santé Sud's Implementation Lead for Clinical Programming.
"What's kind of shifted over time is really realizing this is kind of a singular opportunity to get that expansion as large as possible," explained MacNair who noted, initially, the plan was to renovate the about 3,000 square feet currently dedicated to the existing health records department which is being moved out of that space.
"When you walk into the hospital, on your left is a curved wood wall, and behind that area is the health records, so that's where all the patient records are stored and all the people that do transcription work, in that space right in that front hallway area," he said. "That whole department is being picked up and moved into the Community Services Building."
How much space is being added?
The health records space is about 3,000 square feet, and that was always going toward the emergency department expansion.
"The decision has been made we're going to expand the scope of the expansion," he added. "If you've been in Boundary, there's a big canopy area and sidewalks that you walk under (on the east side of the building) that goes to the secondary ER. The ED is going to expand underneath that canopy, so it's actually gained us about an additional 3,200 square feet of space into the emergency department."
The expanded footprint will essentially double the originally planned emergency department expansion to 6,200 square feet of new space. Along with this, the main entrance to the hospital will shift northward to what is the corner of the existing building.
"That's what's changed in the plan, and it's just so the scale of the expansion really maximizes this project, and maximizes the opportunity to get as much out of this construction project is possible," MacNair noted.
New concept "internal waiting" being added
The additional space being dedicated to the emergency department will mean more exam spaces, larger waiting areas and the addition of a new concept to BTHC called "internal waiting".
"What we've seen in other emergency rooms that have been designed is what's called an internal waiting area," he said. "You come into emergency department, you're seen by a doctor, they say, 'I want an X-ray and I want some blood work, but you're pretty okay, but we're not sure, but we have to do some exams' So, let's say they want an X-ray or a CT, and they want a bit of blood work. If the CT is clear, the blood work is good, then you can go home, so they don't want to move you back out to the emergency room, but you're not sick enough to really need an exam room."
MacNair notes the internal waiting space will be near a nursing desk, so patients can be monitored accordingly, but not take up space in an exam room while results are waited on.
"It increases the efficiency of the space we have," he added. "For the volume of activity we do, we don't have an abundance of exam rooms, so it's making sure we maximize the use of the exam rooms we have."
As for the overall hospital expansion underway, MacNair notes the excellent weather this past Summer and the warm and dry weather this Fall, has allowed construction crews to make really good progress with all parts of the project still on schedule with the original timelines announced.