A New Chapter in Niagara Health Care
- September 2005
- Français
The move of inpatient services from the Niagara Health System's Ontario Street Site in St. Catharines (formerly Hotel Dieu Hospital) to St. Catharines General Site signals a new chapter in health care for St. Catharines and surrounding communities.
By late September and early October, months of planning will come to fruition as inpatient Surgical and Intensive Care Units are moved from Ontario Street Site to St. Catharines General Site. As well, 15 Nephrology beds will be moved from Ontario Street Site to Welland Hospital Site. "We are communicating with patients and their families who may be involved in the move, and are reassuring them that the move will be as stress-free for them as possible," says Linda Boich, Corporate Planning Officer. "We are using a patient transport company and the ambulance service is available should any emergency transport be required." A moving company will be moving the beds and equipment between hospitals.
"As of early October, Ontario Street Site will no longer have patients for overnight stays, but will continue to provide outpatient/ambulatory care for a variety of programs," Linda explains. These programs include; Day Surgery and associated Pre-Op Clinics, Hemodialysis & Renal Care, Prompt Care Centre for non-emergency patient care, Diabetes Education, Adolescent and Autism Program, and Men's and Women's Detox programs. Oct. 6 will mark the closure of the Emergency Department and the opening of the Prompt Care Centre at Ontario Street Site, which will provide non-emergency care to outpatients daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. St. Catharines General Site will be providing emergency round-the-clock care for St. Catharines and surrounding communities.
Outpatient Hemodialysis Unit Opens in Welland
Now open is a 15-station Hemodialysis Unit at Welland Hospital Site, to serve Niagara South. As the photo shows, patients began receiving treatment here Aug. 29 and are delighted with the proximity of the clinic to their homes, says Clinical Manager Jane Cornelius. "We now have the main hemodialysis centre at the Ontario Street Site and the satellite unit at Welland Hospital Site, to better serve Niagara patients who are coming in three times a week, four hours at a time, on average."
By early October, 45 patients a day will be using this temporary clinic. "The patients coming to the clinic have kidneys which no longer function and require hemodialysis," Jane explains. "Hemodialysis is a treatment which removes toxins and waste products from the blood when the kidneys are no longer able to perform this task. The blood is cycled through an artificial kidney (part of the hemodialysis machine) and then returned to the body. Treatments, on average, are about four hours long and required three times per week." Inpatients with kidney problems will be in the new dedicated Nephrology unit, and will use the hemodialysis unit as required.
Planning for a permanent 24-station, $5-million dialysis unit at Welland is well underway, and many of the infrastructure upgrades (i.e. water supply) completed for the temporary clinic will serve the permanent unit when it opens in 2007. The unit will be approximately 12,500 square feet and will allow for the future growth anticipated in this service based on population health statistics for the region. The number of people requiring dialysis in Niagara is projected to increase 87% by 2008.
Outpatient Oncology to Open this Month
Another key program is slated to move mid-September from Ontario Street Site to a newly-renovated space at St. Catharines General Site, pictured left. The Outpatient Oncology (cancer) Program, providing chemotherapy, clinical research trials and clinic visits, will soon be housed in the new unit and filled with 21 treatment spaces for chemotherapy patients by Sept. 19. One wing will be for intravenous and other treatment modalities, while another will provide clinic and research space for patients meeting with oncologists, physicians, nurses, and social workers, as well as radiation oncologists making weekly clinic visits here from Hamilton's Juravinski Cancer Centre. "The patients coming in will have a comfort level because they will be cared for by the same health care professionals they are already familiar with from Ontario Street Site," says Trudy Street, Clinical Manager. "We expect to provide 500-600 treatments per month." As part of the clinic, a supportive palliative clinic is in place. A satellite pharmacy, adjacent to the new Oncology Unit, will be used for mixing chemotherapy drugs, and will aid in efficiency and timely care. Supportive care treatments, including blood transfusions for cancer patients, will also take place at St. Catharines General Site on a nearby unit by early October.