Tower has impressive stats
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of stories dedicated to profiling the people working together to keep the wheels moving at Penticton Regional Hospital. These stories showcase the important work being done each day and highlight the enhancements soon to come with the new David E. Kampe Tower, scheduled to open in late April 2019. SPECIAL TO THE HERALD
As you walk through the underconstruction David E. Kampe Patient Care Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital, several things strike you.
Expansive windows bring in a lot of natural light; single patient rooms — each with their own bathroom — will provide privacy and help infection control; large operating rooms will give doctors and nurses exceptional working space.
And these are just a few of the many things you’ll notice in the state-of-the-art tower – named for Penticton philanthropist David E. Kampe - when it opens in April 2019. But what’s lurking behind the walls? “It’s obviously a complex undertaking to plan and construct a six-storey hospital tower as an addition to the existing Penticton Regional Hospital,” said Interior Health project manager Michael Morton.
“There is a tremendous amount of work that goes on, both at the site and in the planning stages. With the opening approaching, crews are hard at work to make sure everything gets done.”
Construction of the David E. Kampe Tower began back in May of 2016 when crews broke ground on the project. When it comes to PCT Champions, crews that have been on site building the tower since construction began have been putting their heart and soul into the project. In May of 2016 there may have been just a handful of workers to begin the job but now close to 400 are on site every day in this final year.
Not only has a lot of people-power gone into building the new tower, there has been a plethora of supplies used as well. More than 22,000 cubic metres of concrete has been poured on the site, building the foundation of the new tower as well as the nearby parkade.
Also used in construction were 2.4 million kilograms of rebar, 140,000 kg of structural steel along with 50,000 square metres of drywall. Hundreds of exterior windows have been installed. Inside the hospital walls it’s even more impressive as thousands of metres of wiring will seamlessly connect the modern facility.
All told, there are 460 kilometres of various cables that will connect the PRH PCT from low-voltage cable for the nurse-call system to security and panic systems as well as the Interior Health Network.
And finishing the building will require 4,000 gallons of paint.
The first floor will feature a brand new SOS Café as well as a gift shop but the most impressive feature may be the stand alone MRI suite, as part of the medical imaging department. MRIs, with their intense magnetic pull, need to be housed in a fully protected room. A thin sheet of copper lines the inside of the walls and ceiling, as the MRI room is built like a room within a room.
The second floor features a series of large operating room theatres, along with the urology suite, itself lined with lead as a protective measure. The third floor features UBC space to train more health care workers, along with meeting rooms and a brand new Medical Device Reprocessing Department, that will clean and sterilize surgical equipment, consolidated in one space.
Floors four through six are the inpatient units with single-patient rooms, each with their own bathroom, and again, large windows bringing in natural light to help patient care. The seventh floor is a mechanical room and on top of that is the heli-pad, drastically improving PRH’s ability to transfer patients. It’s also one of the best views in Penticton with Skaha Lake to the south and Okanagan Lake to the north.
Once the new Patient Care Tower is completed, renovations in the existing hospital will begin with completion anticipated in April 2021.