Hospital ER gets renovation

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 13, 2006


Plans to move ahead with a long-awaited renovation of the emergency department at Burnaby Hospital received a hearty endorsement from Burnaby council on Monday night.

Arden Krystal, the executive director of acute care services at the hospital, said the Fraser Health Authority's interim CEO, Keith Anderson, has given approval to immediately begin preliminary design work on the renovation.

The changes will provide more space for the 'front end' of the department, improve security for staff from both violence and airborne contaminants, and relocate the contamination isolation room from the rear of the department closer to the entrance, said Krystal, who arrived at Burnaby Hospital 18 months ago.

Krystal also noted that an original cost estimate of $1.5 million for the renovation will likely rise, due to the rapidly rising cost of construction materials across B.C.

Asked when construction might actually start, Krystal said: "All indications from Mr. Anderson are that it will be as quickly as possible."

The renovation is just one of several changes coming to the hospital since the arrival of a new administrative team, consisting of Krystal and a new medical director, Dr. Tom Compagna, who has a long history of involvement in bringing medical aid to some of the most impoverished people around the world, city council was told.

Compagna, who began work at Burnaby Hospital just five weeks ago, told city council that he spent several years working in a non-profit trauma centre in "the Deep South" of the United States, before taking on similar jobs in New Zealand and Papau New Guinea.

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Compagna came home to Canada because he believes our national medical system is the good role model for the rest of the world.

"It's fair to say, my perspective is hopefully not one that is too common," said Compagna, who added that his family returned home to Canada "because we really felt that the future of health care lay in our current system."

But while Mayor Derek Corrigan welcomed the arrival of new administrators, he also put them on notice that city hall will continue its fight to keep the city's hospital open and available to serve the people of both Burnaby and East Vancouver.

"You will find that all of us are intimately connected to Burnaby Hospital," Corrigan said, noting that all four of his children were born in the facility and two of his grandparents died there.

Corrigan also said that one of his pet peeves with the B.C. health ministry has been its frequent attempts to 'regionalize' services - which could result in Burnaby Hospital being unable to serve the people of East vancouver.

"My advise to Fraser Health is to get used to it," said Corrigan. "We want to work with you and give you the political support you need to be an effective hospital."

Krystal, a B.C. native who worked as nurse for 20 years before being promoted as a manager in various position at Vancouver General Hospital before coming to Burnaby, said she has been impressed by the city's commitment to its hospital. And she promised to continue working on improving its services.

She noted that Burnaby Hospital has the second highest ratio of seniors among its clients, and has more low income seniors than any other hospital in the region. She also said that 70 per cent of the patient days spent in the hospital are for people aged 70 years and over.

Among the other recent improvements at the hospital are last year's opening of the regions first multiple sclerosis clinic, which will have an open house at the end of May, and the planned opening of a new maternity clinic in June.

the maternity clinic will be for expectant mothers who do not have their own general practitioner, and is intended to reduce ht number of births by Burnaby residents at Women's and Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Krystal said.

The hospital also recently agreed to create two new 'elder friendly environments' in a pair of unused hospital rooms in cooperation with the gerontology research centre at Simon Fraser University, Krystal said.

She also said the the total number of beds at Burnaby Hospital has risen to "the 290s," up from the 272 beds that were in the facility two years ago. Krystal noted that some of those beds are overflow beds, which are traditionally only used during the high demand winter months, when flu season hits.

Coun. Gary Begin, who also serves as the chair of St. Michael's Care Centre and Hospital, expressed thanks for the recent hiring of a seniors care nurse in the emergency department, and asked for a more streamlined process to help move less critically ill seniors out of the hospital and into local care centre on weekends when the hospital is otherwise full and there is a need to free up beds.

Begin noted that his own father has suffered five heart attacks in the past year, and in his most recent admission to Burnaby Hospital, he was very impressed with the work of the senior's care nurse, who asked his mother if she had any needs while the doctors looked after her husband.

"She's worth her weight in gold," Begin said.

Coun. Pietro Calendino used the opportunity to chastise the provincial government for its failure to live up to its commitment to build 5,000 new long-term care beds by the year 2008, and asked how the many new of those beds will be built in Burnaby.

Compagna said Fraser Health has seen 274 new long-term care beds built this year, and expects to have 1,500 of the province's total 5,000 beds by the end of 2008.

Krystal noted that seniors moving into a Burnaby long-term care facility typically have a wait of about eight days, which is substantially less than the wait for a bed in Vancouver, or for a patient with special health needs, such as hemodialysis.