There are many stories about the Weyburn General Hospital, ranging from humourous anecdotes to tales that border on the horrific - and all point to a common theme: it's time to replace this aging structure with a new hospital facility for Weyburn and
There are many stories about the Weyburn General Hospital, ranging from humourous anecdotes to tales that border on the horrific - and all point to a common theme: it's time to replace this aging structure with a new hospital facility for Weyburn and area residents.
To this end, the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation has been established as the fundraising arm for this project, as the community is required to come up with 35 per cent of the cost of a new facility, although at this stage only estimates can be made of what the cost of new hospital would be. To assist people in considering the current situation of the Weyburn hospital, the views of staff members at the facility were sought in order to inform people what it's really like in this facility.
A reporter for the Weyburn Review was given an extensive tour of the hospital and spoke to a number of the staff who work there, to find out if we honestly and truly need a new hospital. After all, many people will ask, what's wrong with the one we have?
As one sees each floor, and the unique condition each department has to work under, there is a common theme that many staff in the hospital feel, namely there is a severe lack of space, and in many instances, a lack of privacy. There is simply no room for most departments to grow and expand, or to do the job they're supposed to do now.
There are other problems as well, such as a building that's falling apart, or is simply inadequate for the needs of the patients or the health care workers.
"I believe for good patient care, it would be nice to have all the services on one or two floors," said nurse manager Sylvia Danyluk.
Giving the example of someone who comes in for X-rays and blood work, she noted that the X-rays are done on the main floor, but then they have to ride the "rickety" elevator up to the fourth floor where the lab is located to get the blood work done.
If someone comes in needing emergency medical care in the Emergency Room, they will find the room contains three stretchers, side-by-side, with only a curtain to separate each one. There is no privacy whatsoever, said Danyluk, and the space around the stretchers isn't that big, if a patient is brought in on a trolley from an ambulance. As the room is small, all the supplies for the doctors and nurses have to be stored in an adjoining room rather than being nearby for easy accessibility.
"It would be awesome to come in to the ER and have your basic supplies right there where the stretcher is, and some kind of wall, so as I'm lying there in a nearby bed, I'm not listening to the doctor having a confidential conversation with another patient," said Danyluk.
As out-patients come in to the ER for treatment, she said, there is the odd time when a trauma patient is brought in (such as from an accident scene), "and we have to send everybody else out so we can concentrate on that patient."
One of the inadequacies of the main floor is that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is located up on the second floor instead of near the ER on the main floor. As Danyluk explained, a large part of the main floor is dedicated to hospital records, which had to expand into areas that had been used for office space, making an already-tight space even tighter.
Up on the second floor are offices and rooms for Home Care, Telehealth and social workers, along with the ICU. As RN Tammy Hillstead pointed out, after 5 p.m., the lone nurse staffing the ICU is left alone on the floor. "Isolation is a factor up here," she said.
If an emergency arises down in the ER that requires her attention, she would have to notify a nurse from the nursing station on third floor to come down to her unit, to then enable her to go down to the ER to attend to the emergency.
"The other thing with being isolated, it's nice to be around other people. If for example I have a patient who's overweight and needs to be moved around, it's nice to have another set of hands to help out," said Hillstead.
She noted she was born in the hospital, and her grandmother, Winnifred Tourigny, was an RN there who retired just before she began as a nurse. "I'm hoping within my lifetime that there will be a new hospital here in Weyburn," she added.
As with other areas of the hospital, privacy is also an issue in the ICU, as the ward is open with four beds, with one bed set off in an isolation room.
For Mary Deren, in charge of Telehealth, they have current technology for video-conferencing, but to do education sessions for staff, there is very limited room available.
"You have to plan for staff education and public forums," she said, noting the main conference room on the second floor is limited for space, with one other conference room available in the basement, where the pipes leading to the heaters all have red letters stencilled with the word "asbestos".
"There are two rooms, but both are very limited in terms of space and accessibility," said Deren. "Also we need a proper washroom up here. There's only one set of public washrooms on the main floor."
She noted there are no public washrooms on any of the floors except the main floor, which is highly inconvenient for any member of the public on the second, third or fourth floors.
Up on the third floor, nurse Brenda Stein noted that environmental controls "are terrible", and Danyluk agreed, noting one area could be freezing and in another area down the hall, the heat could be on high. In the summer, there is no air conditioning in the areas where the patients are, and every patient's room has to have fans brought in to cool them off.
"It's not just frustrating for the nurses, but for the patients too," said Stein.
Another problem up on the third floor is the lack of phones; there is basically one portable phone for the use of 30 patients.
In the basement, there are a whole other set of problems with the facility, beginning in the cramped pharmacy with a fresh air vent that brings in exhaust from the ambulance bay outside, holes in the ceiling and asbestos in the floor tiles.
Pharmacist Sheila Achen recalled one time she heard a crashing sound; looking down the hall where some metal lockers are located, she saw a big chunk of concrete had fallen down and crashed on top of the lockers. On another memorable occasion, the sewage pipe burst and there was sewage all over the floor in the basement.
"It's a continual challenge for the staff," said Marga Cugnet, the interim CEO for Sun Country and a former nurse at the hospital.
"Every time there's a request, we have to consider, can we put it off or do we put money into it? Can we expand the emergency room? Do you put $3 million into something, or by doing it are we delaying approval for a new hospital?" she asked, saying it's hard to say what the time line is to get a new hospital; there's no question of the need, but the question is how long it will take before a new hospital is approved for Weyburn.
This creates a challenge for the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation; no plans or drawings have yet been drawn up for a new hospital, and the price tag of such a facility is not known, other than the community will have to raise 35 per cent of the project cost.
To help with pointing out the need for new acute care facilities, Cugnet noted that Sun Country is undertaking an acute care study in the health region to determine what services are needed, and how and where residents are accessing them, as well as what services Sun Country should be offering, and which would fit in with a new hospital in Weyburn.
This study will be presented to the board at their January board meeting.
