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Read all about the campaign!
A MESSAGE TO OUR DONORS
OUR HOSPITAL TODAY:
A HEALTHCARE FLAGSHIP FOR THE ISLAND
CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME
NEW FACILITY DESIGNED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Walter Riehl, President of the PCH Foundation (left), and Derek Key, Campaign Chair, are shown with a CT Scan, a critical piece of new equipment that the Campaign will make possible. Prince County residents will no longer have to travel to Charlottetown or off the Island to secure a scan. Province-wide waiting lists for CT scan procedures will be reduced as patients from other areas can be referred to our new facility.
A MESSAGE TO OUR DONORS
When Dr. Alex MacNeil conceived the idea for a Prince County Hospital in 1909, he was responding to a need in our community. Residents living between Tignish and Hunter River then had to rely on home visits and office examinations. Emergency surgery was performed in the doctor's cramped office or, in many cases, on the kitchen table in a patient's home. Anyone requiring hospital care was transported to Charlottetown by train.
The generosity of community leaders such as Thomas E. Ramsay, who donated his Russ Hotel on Central Street in 1909, was the impetus for the establishment of the first hospital. Renovations required to transform the hotel into Prince County Hospital were estimated to be $7,000 (well over $100,000 in today's funds). The public's response to the subsequent fundraising appeal was overwhelming, with donations ranging from linens, potatoes, meat and milk, to a private gift of $5,000 for the purchase of X-ray equipment. Prince County Hospital admitted its first patient in 1912.
In 1946, no longer able to accommodate the demands of a growing community from the hotel-turned-hospital, the trustees announced a $300,000 fundraising campaign to build a new hospital on its current site. Once again, the community rose to the occasion. M.F. Schurman donated the three-acre site and in 1951 the present-day Prince County Hospital opened its doors, at an approximate cost of $1 Million.
Today, we are faced with the indisputable need to replace the facility. Our aging hospital is significantly undersized and inefficiently designed for today's healthcare environment. Because Prince County Hospital plays a pivotal role in the Island-wide healthcare system, its replacement is a government priority. Construction is slated to be complete by 2003.
Our challenge is simple -- outfitting our new facility with the best equipment and technology. Equipping the new facility involves raising significant funds -- $12.5 Million. In order to succeed it will require everyone to dig deeper than ever before. The result will be better healthcare for Island residents.
We invite you to join us in this exciting effort and count yourself among those who, at the dawn of this new millennium, are accepting the challenge of bringing good health to life for our community.
Those who had the foresight to establish the original hospital in the converted hotel on Central Street would not recognize the current facility. Our 112-bed facility provides a broad range of primary and secondary services including orthopaedic surgery, oncology, general surgery, internal medicine and geriatrics. More than 500 babies are born here each year. Another 17,000 children visits are handled annually, (resulting in only 100 of them being sent off Island for treatment).
-- Walter Riehl, Foundation Board President
-- Derek Key, Campaign Chair
RETURN TO TOP
Ambulatory Care will constitute 30 percent of the new, 180,000 sq. ft facility and for physiotherapist Angela Carragher, that means more room and patient-focused service for clients like Barry Chappell. Departments in close proximity will provide easy access for patients to secure a variety of tests in one area. "As co-chair of the staff campaign, I know support is so strong because we all know the difference the new facility will make in our ability to provide top-level care."
OUR HOSPITAL TODAY:
A HEALTHCARE FLAGSHIP FOR THE ISLAND
Prince County Hospital is a healthcare flagship in the province. As one of only two regional facilities, it plays a critical role in the healthcare delivery system for our community and indeed the province. The hospital is renowned for its exceptional care and it is the institution the more than 50,000 residents of Prince County and beyond turn to with confidence when their families are in need.
Healthcare reform has challenged us to make strides in delivering healthcare in new ways. Our teams of professionals are proud of their ability to work innovatively toward higher integration of services both within the hospital and reaching out to a host of community health services including Home Care Support and Public Health. The needs of the patient come first and our hospital has earned the distinction of being part of the first health system in the country to be accredited at such a highly integrated level.
Our hospital is also recognized as an innovator in Ambulatory Care in Canada for the services we have developed aimed at treating people on an outpatient basis. One such program can deliver certain types of intravenous treatment to patients allowing them to receive chemotherapy in the comfort of their home -- a service unique in the province. This unique patient care is possible through special training for our nurses and as a result of the purchase of specialized equipment.
Another innovation demonstrated at Prince County Hospital is the way in which Child, Youth and Family services are now delivered. This advance in healthcare has seen Obstetrics, Paediatrics, Public Health, and Child and Family Services working collaboratively to deliver healthcare for children and to integrate the support for them and their families from the various programs.
Every year more than 500 children are born at Prince County Hospital and another 17,000 are treated. Lisa Gallant wasn't expecting to be back in the hospital so soon after her son Blake's birth but she was glad the obstetric and paediatric expertise was there when she needed it. Minor surgery at less than three weeks of age was uneventful for Blake due to the tender care and attention of the staff and doctors.
CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME
Like any other built decades ago, our hospital was constructed on the principle that its primary function was to admit patients for lengthy stays, with outpatient services playing a minor role. This model is no longer relevant. While it was designed to handle 20,000 outpatient visits, the hospital now receives more than 37,000 annually, resulting in overcrowding and long waits. The radiology department has no space to accommodate either a CT Scan or new mammography equipment. Space is at such a premium that there is, for example, no accommodation for privacy areas for those with critically or terminally ill family members on extended stays.
Yet another example is the facility's heating system which is a mesh of three air systems that do not work well together. This has created great difficulties in maintaining adequate temperature control for patient comfort and recovery, and operational cost inefficiencies.
There are also challenges more specific to direct healthcare delivery in our hospital. New advances in medical technology and care, coupled with an ever-expanding population and increased demand for services, have meant that the ability of this hospital to deliver appropriate services is increasingly restricted. Not only is the facility significantly undersized, experiencing rapid deterioration, and suffering from inadequate electrical and mechanical systems, but it is also inefficiently designed for today's healthcare environment.
Renovating the current facility to meet acceptable standards would cost $25 million and we would still have the same inadequate space and design. Constructing a new free-standing facility designed to meet today's health needs and technological advances will cost in the vicinity of $50 million. Equipping it will cost another $12.5 million. Based on careful evaluation and consultation with healthcare experts, the Regional Board, the administration of Prince County Hospital and the community, government determined that the only logical solution is to replace the current building with a new healthcare facility.
Individuals faced with a life-threatening illness have the potential to decide, plan, learn, teach, enjoy, laugh, console and love. Palliative Care helps them, their families and their loved ones do all of that. As a Palliative Care volunteer for the Hospital and the ALS Society, marie Salamoun Dunne understands the need for dedicated Palliative Care. She also knows that many committed people will strive to nurture and enhance the Palliative Care program in our new Facility.
NEW FACILITY DESIGNED FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The existing hospital will be replaced by the year 2003 with a facility which will maintain and enhance the current level of secondary, acute and primary care and community services. Not only will the new facility be larger than our current hospital, but it will also be designed to accommodate the demands of a modern healthcare system. The delivery of core services will become even more focused on the patient with 16 new and/or enhanced services in the new facility. These enhancements will include a CT Scan, digital imaging capabilities, new mammography equipment as well as an increased ability to provide Ambulatory Care and Day Surgery which now accounts for more than 80 percent of all surgery at Prince County Hospital.
Situated on a 27-acre site the new facility will boast 180,000 square feet of space (43 percent larger that the current hospital) designed with the patient in mind and capable of accommodating the latest advances in technology. Ambulatory Care will represent 30 percent of the entire building space. Outpatient services will be consolidated in Ambulatory Care for the convenience of patients. Departments in close proximity will provide easy access for patients to secure a variety of tests in one area. For example, departments such as Laboratory Services and Diagnostic Imaging are located in the same area, eliminating the need for patients to go from one floor to the other for tests. At the same time inpatient care remains a top priority with 102 beds devoted to the care of those requiring a longer stay at the facility.
New and Enhanced Equipment and Services
After taking into consideration the equipment and furnishings that can be moved from the current hospital, there remains an exhaustive and detailed list of equipment needs for the new
facility. Guiding a thoroughly consultative process to ensure that the list reflects the breadth and depth of equipment and technology required, is the central criteria of patient-focused care.
Diagnostic Imaging
Leading the impressive list of 16 new or enhanced services is digital imaging. The new health facility will be one of the first in the Atlantic Region to move to digital imaging which relies on computer stored images as opposed to bulky, cumbersome film.
At the centre of this service is the CT Scan. For the patient it means faster and better diagnosis. Image quality of the CT Scan is superior to X-ray and the physician can access the images (and those archived) remotely at computer workstations inside and outside the facility.
The Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) will establish our ability to send and receive electronic medical images on a network, thus dramatically reducing the time normally associated with waiting for traditional film. This 'high-tech jukebox' not only takes up considerably less space than conventional film storage areas but also automatically pulls out and displays digitally encoded images of X-rays, CT Scans, ultrasounds and other imaging techniques typically used in healthcare facilities today.
Taking it one step further, the digital images open up the possibility of consultation with specialists at a distance, as interconnectivity and telemedicine become possible with other facilities. The productivity of the new CT Scan is considerably improved over current models with this equipment being three-to-six times faster than older units.
The need for the 1,800 annual patient referrals to Charlottetown will be eliminated. As well, it is expected that the province-wide waiting lists for CT Scan procedures will be reduced since patients from other areas can be referred to our facility to help offset the backlog.
The environmental benefit is significant, as the CT Scan will also virtually eliminate the dangerous chemicals and bulky film associated with traditional X-ray.
For 40 years, Dr. Jim Saunders has provided exemplary service to Prince County Hospital. He's brought children into the world, mended broken bones and comforted thousands of children like MacKenzie Gallant in his care. For him, the new facility will mean so much more than a modern new building. It will present the opportunity to attract new physicians and other healthcare professionals to a healthcare centre designed with the patient in mind and equipped with the tools to let the professionals do their job.
Mammography
Early detection, critical to breast cancer treatment, is made possible with more timely and higher quality mammography services. The new facility will have space to house two mammography units. One has been purchased through the 1999 annual campaign. The second unit will be purchased with funds raised in our Bring Good Health to Life campaign. The workload on the aging original equipment has increased 30 percent in the last few years and with two units, waiting times for routine breast screening can be reduced.
Technology platform with an eye to the future
Paramount in the design of the new facility will be a state-of-the-art technology platform allowing easier adaptation to changes in workload and technological advances as they occur. The new facility is an integral link in the plans for a province-wide Radiology Information System.
Technology in the new facility will realize valuable timesaving. Everything from an electronic records system to a computerized admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) system will free up staff time. This groundwork is being laid so that electronic patient record charting can be realized in the future. Ultimately, the patient benefits, as staff will have more time to provide care.
Innovations in Care
With a new facility comes the opportunity to change the way service is delivered. The design and layout of departments in the two-storey facility will facilitate a better process. More importantly, innovations in care will be possible in the new facility in such areas as Paediatrics. When a child enters the hospital through the Emergency Room and the assessment determines a period of observation is required, they will be moved out of the ER to the Paeds floor where the expertise in treating children is centered. For those young patients who have regularly scheduled treatment or clinic visits, they will be seen in the Paediatrics Medical Daycare, separate from the adult Ambulatory Care area.
Islanders are fond of their hospital and they have every reason to be, according to Lloyd and Hazel Millar. Both have been patients at Prince County Hospital and Hazel is a regular volunteer. When they came to Summerside 35 years ago, they chose to live here because of the excellent level of care available and they haven't regretted that decision. "It's the attitude of the doctors and nurses and everyone at the hospital that impresses us the most and we're sure that same level of care will be available in the new facility."
Dedicated Restorative Care
Another new service will be the Dedicated Restorative Care area, complete with a Rehab Terrace. This dedicated area's team will be focused on helping patients make the transition from hospital to home or other care. The Rehab Terrace presents real-life situations in a controlled environment, such as graveled walkways, curbs, uneven pavement, etc. Rehab patients will have the chance to practice and track their progress before leaving the facility.
Palliative Care
For terminally ill patients, their families and loved ones, the new Palliative Care area will provide specialized attention in a four-room designated area. As important as any provision we make for bringing someone into this life is the recognition for the dignity and compassion that must be afforded those whose life is ending due to a terminal illness. The new Palliative Care area will also host a Family Quiet Room.
Reaching out to the Community
A unique innovation in the new facility is the Health Resource Centre. Recognizing that people want and need more information on a wide range of healthcare issues, the Centre will provide information and educational materials. Access to the Internet along with brochures and pamphlets will assist the general public in making informed decisions about their health. Viewed as one more link to the community, the Health Resource Centre is another example of the integrated approach East Prince Health has championed.
Nutrition Counseling
Another community outreach program is nutrition counseling. Addressing a wide variety of needs including diabetes, cardiac recovery, chronic digestive tract conditions, prenatal and postnatal, weight control, etc. -- these wellness promotion programs will be an integral part of the service delivery at the new facility.
Dedicated Clinics
Specialized clinic areas for Asthma, Diabetes, Endoscopy and Oncology are also part of the new and enhanced services that will be available in the new facility on an inpatient and outpatient basis.
Conclusion
Not since the day in 1951 when the current Prince County Hospital opened its doors has the opportunity presented itself to expand the horizon of healthcare for our community. In the new facility, it is essential that the time-honoured tradition of excellence in patient care be married with leading edge technology to ensure appropriate healthcare is available for our community.
Your support will ensure that happens.
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