Today is a big day in Alberta for families of sick children. Alberta’s Children’s Hospital opened its doors today after 7 years of planning and 3 years of construction. The new Hospital is the first free-standing comprehensive pediatric facility built in Canada in 20 years.
“There was an incredible amount of thought that went into designing and building this hospital, and as a community we should be very proud. This state-of-the-art facility will ensure our talented staff can provide the very best care to sick children, while at the same time helping them to push the boundaries of excellence. The sky is the limit in terms of the innovative, leading-edge quality care that we’ll be able to offer.” Charlie Fischer, a key advocate for the new hospital, who co-chaired the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation’s fundraising drive for the new building
Steve Hoscheit, President and CEO of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, which raised $53 million during the fundraising campaign for the new hospital, and more than $25 million since, says, “This facility is the hospital of our dreams. It allows us the opportunity to provide state-of-the-art care for our children because it is truly a state-of-the-art building.” Pride and commitment to excellence are evident in every square inch of the $253 million hospital. Among other things, the new building features:
- The new hospital will be 50% larger than the current hospital — an increase of about 500 thousand square feet of working space to 741 thousand square feet. It can double its capacity again if needed.
- More operating rooms (from five to nine) and post-operation beds will accommodate more surgeries.
- An outpatient clinic area that will eventually become twice as large as the original site.
- A specialized airflow system, inter-operative MRI and SMART technology capabilities as well as the ability to isolate several areas in case of an infection outbreak.
- The Emergency Department in the new hospital is designed to accommodate 60 thousand visits per year. While the current hospital was built to handle 23 thousand visits, it now handles about twice that number.
- The new hospital will have 133 beds. One hundred and five of them will be single patient rooms – nearly five times more than the existing facility – an important factor in preventing the spread of infection and illness.
- The new hospital is designed to further excellence in family-centred care with enhancements like daybeds for parents in patient rooms.
While the new hospital features state-of-the-art technology, it is also designed to be adaptable to changing technological needs without major renovations, thanks in part to dedicated interstitial spaces between floors where infrastructure can be replaced and upgraded without disrupting the hospital’s operations.
Hopefully, this will be the beginning of new hospitals in Canada. Our current hospitals need to be updated to accommodate the growing population in this country.
SOURCE: Alberta Health Region
