Hospital tower will mean just 20 more beds, directors hear

Even with 84 new rooms in the Penticton Regional Hospital patient care tower, it will result in a net gain of only 20 new beds, regional directors were told, Thursday.

Separate presentations were made to the Okanagan Similkameen Regional Hospital District board by South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation executive director Carey Bornn and Interior Health’s area health service administrator Carl Meadows.

Bornn said about $13.1 million has been raised or pledged thus far towards the foundation’s goal of raising $20 million to equip the $312.5-million hospital expansion.

Construction is on schedule and is expected to be wrapped by December 2018 in time to welcome patients early in 2019.

Director Judy Sentes noted all of the 84 new rooms are singles.

“We have a history of four to a room, but the key to the project is the single rooms and that will be a huge improvement on our patient care,” Sentes said.

As well, rooms in the existing hospital that accommodate four patients will be rolled back to two per room. Rooms that accommodate two patients will become single rooms.

There will also be an expansion to emergency room services, five surgical theatres, an MRI, and expansion of ambulatory care.

Another common question, Bornn said, is if the two buildings will be linked. The two buildings will be linked by the basement and two or three different floors.

“We still have $7 million to go,” Bornn said of the fundraising goal. “My predecessor did an excellent job with the current donors. We now have to find the people who we don’t know.”

Area G (Hedley/Keremeos rural) director Elef Christensen noted that during his stay in the hospital recently that his bed was placed in a hallway.

“Why only an increase in 15 rooms (20 actually), we don’t expect too many people to die off?”

With issues such as infection control and dementia, single rooms are superior, Meadows told the board. He said staffing is another concern with the number of beds in a hospital.

Area B (Cawston) director George Bush asked about the process of naming rights for the patient care tower.

Bornn said it’s out of the foundation’s hands and is the decision of Interior Health or the provincial government.

Area F (West Bench) director Michael Brydon was critical of patient care in the province.

“Back in the 1950s, they built all kinds of elementary schools and then they built universities in the 1960s to accommodate the baby boomers,” Brydon said. “These same baby boomers badly need (hospital) infrastructure now and they’re not getting it.”

Describing himself as “optimistic,” Meadows said the four main issues are: fragmentation, communication, linking clients with services earlier, and family expectations.

Sentes noted another major concern is many local residents do not have a family doctor.

At the conclusion of both presentations directors unanimously approved the hospital district’s $3.5 million contribution to Interior Health’s $8.8-million capital budget for the region this year. The biggest-ticket item is $2 million worth of modifications to infrastructure at PRH to tie in to the new tower.

The average property owner within the hospital district will pay $106 in taxes this year, up from $101 in 2016, which is helping build savings to pay part of the local share of the new tower.

The key to the project is the single rooms and that will be a huge improvement on our patient care. Judy Sentes