SMH shifts its focus to rebuild, expand its emergency, operating rooms

Posted October 9, 2012

Stevenson Memorial Hospital (SMH) has deemed redevelopment of its emergency and operating rooms to be a top priority and will apply to the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care for approval and funding.

"The submission will ask the Ontario government to approve the proposal and provide a financial grant for planning the hospital redevelopment," according to an SMH press release. "This pre-capital planning proposal, being prepared by a newly-formed hospital board committee, is expected to be submitted by the end of 2012. It seeks a grant to plan the redevelopment and expansion of the Stevenson Emergency Department and Operating Rooms. The planning will likely also include the redevelopment of Diagnostic Imaging and the Laboratories which are integrally linked to both Emergency and the operating rooms."

The new capital priority option was identified by the Future Health Care Centre Committee, an SMH Board of Directors' sub committee comprised of Hospital Board Directors, Stevenson Foundation members, hospital management, medical professionals and community citizens at large, that was struck over the summer.

"We are focusing our efforts on developing a plan that will provide the residents of this area with a new emergency department with accompanying operating rooms and state of the art diagnostic imaging and laboratory services. Our goal is to provide this community with first class health care services," according to Scott Anderson, chair of the new committee as quoted in the release. "Emergency is our priority from a community needs perspective. The growth in emergency visits and the complexity of the cases now being seen in the Emergency Department combined with the existing physical state of the facility means we must act sooner rather than later. This community has no alternative."

The redevelopment "is a long-term process with many stages," and would include a new addition and renovations of the existing site.

"Stevenson Memorial Hospital was built almost 50 years ago and although it contains some of the most modern diagnostic equipment, the building is small and cramped for handling increasing numbers of emergency and operating room visits," according to the press release. "For example; having one common hospital entrance serving as the main lobby and entrance to the hospital as well as the entrance and waiting area for the Emergency Department is not an acceptable hospital standard. Quality health care provides patient privacy and optimizes infection prevention and control. This entrance does neither. The inefficiencies of running an older health care facility are expected to become more of an issue as the community's population being served ages and doubles over the next 25 years."

SMH, under the previous administration, had been pursuing a long term plan that included replacing the current hospital with a new building on the same Fletcher Cres. property site. That seems to have evolved into a mix of new and renovations.

"A feature of early redevelopment discussions is the principle of leaving the current hospital buildings intact and adding new modern expansion space on the current location, and redeveloping space within the existing infrastructure," according to SMH CEO Annette Jones. "This approach eliminates the need for demolition without losing the services of the existing facilities that currently serve the community. It also ensures the required health care technology (such as the CT scanner and digital mammography) that has been funded by the community will continue to be operated without interruption as the Emergency Department and operating room space is planned and built."

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