(Welcome to one of many stories dedicated to profiling the people working together to keep the wheels moving at Penticton Regional Hospital as it prepares to open the new David E. Kampe Tower next spring.)
Patricia Breakey has witnessed a lot of change at Penticton Regional Hospital during her 13 years as a nursing manager in ambulatory care.
During that time, PRH has seen an increase in ambulatory care services, so much so that the department has out-grown its space in the current hospital.
“Ambulatory care has grown immensely but the space that we have at the hospital hasn’t kept up with the demand, so we have lots of little clinics stashed in different places,” says Breakey, noting that some of the clinics require patients to be admitted to one floor, travel to another for their procedure, and then return.
But once the new David E. Kampe Tower opens next April, things are going to improve for staff and patients.
A key component of Ambulatory care is day surgery, where patients have their surgical procedure done in the operating room and return home the same day.
It’s a busy department with a total of 10 nurses taking care of patients and working with other health care providers such as respiratory therapists, cardiac technicians, social workers, anesthesiologists and doctors.
Currently day surgery is not on the same floor as the operating rooms, so patients travel to another level to go to the operating room and then are transported back following their procedures.
Day surgery is in a converted inpatient unit, where patients share a room. However in the new tower, day surgery will feature private rooms with separate bathrooms that are wheelchair accessible, an ideal setting for privacy and infection control.
New operating rooms, the post-anaesthetic recovery room and the day surgery department will also be located together. Each patient will have their own private admission and recovery bay. There is also a dedicated patient family lounge next to the unit.
Arriving at ambulatory care will be easier as well with patients and their families able to enter the department from the new parkade, allowing for easy drop-off and pick-up of family members.
A new infusion clinic will also be located in a brand new area, where there is a private bay and a window view for each patient. The new endoscopy area will provide expanded space, dedicated private patient bays for recovery and state-of-the-art equipment in the new suites, where colonoscopies and gastroscopies are provided.
