PROGRESS AT MISERICORDIA
Work on new emergency room set to begin
Construction is expected to begin later this year on a new $65-million emergency department for the Misericordia Community Hospital that will triple the size of the current unit and add 34 new treatment spaces.
The “state-of-the art,” 5,000-square-metre facility will be built immediately west of Misericordia’s main patient tower over the next four years, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman told a news conference Thursday outside the west-end hospital.
“This project is going to change the experience of people who are coming here to the emerg,” she said. “Staff do amazing work but they are on top of each other, and it definitely isn’t the best work or care space for those patients … And to be very frank, Albertans deserve better.”
The design and floor plan of the new unit still have to be finalized over the next few months, so no preview images of the facility were available Thursday.
However, planners know the building will include 66 treatment spaces and six ambulance bays with a separate entrance. The current emergency department has four bays for ambulances that share a common entrance with the public.
Plans also call for the new facility to have two x-ray suites.
The Misericordia’s existing emergency department was built in 1969 and designed to accommodate 25,000 patients annually, yet the facility has been getting 50,000 in recent years.
That has resulted in cramped and stressful conditions, with patients being examined in the waiting room or stretchers in the hallway, and inadequate space to store equipment.
The new building, expected to open in 2023, will accommodate yearly patient traffic of 60,000 patients.
And when those patients show up, staff will have the ability to provide more “dignified” care, Covenant Health CEO Patrick Dumelie said. Treatment spaces will be much more private, incorporating sliding glass doors rather than curtains or cubicles.
The decision to go with a new building was important because it allows the current emergency department to keep operating during the construction period, Dumelie said.
The project will require demolishing the Misericordia’s west annex structure and hospital chapel, which will be relocated. Once the new emergency department is running, the current 1,700-squaremetre unit inside the main building can be renovated for other needs, Dumelie said.
He described the project as a “significant step forward in modernizing what we hope someday to be a vibrant Misericordia campus.”
Hospital advocates have argued the new emergency department should be a prelude to a much broader redevelopment of the entire Misericordia.
Covenant has even provided the province with a plan to that effect which calls for construction of a 430-bed tower, new parking structures and refurbishment of the current building for mental health care and other uses.
It’s unclear when or how that might be funded, considering the province already has a large amount of money committed to other Edmonton health projects, including a new suburban hospital, a lab facility and a child mental health building.
The Royal Alexandra Hospital is also campaigning for a major overhaul in the coming years.
Hoffman said she knows more work needs to be done at the Misericordia, but that her department is still working through ideas with Covenant and Alberta Health Services.