Complex to open spring 2013
Our new health complex and Walker Family Cancer Centre entered its third official year of construction at the end of April – on time, on budget and on scope.
With construction more than 65% complete, the NHS is focusing on the work needed to transform the building into a functioning hospital.
Planning for the new facility has brought together an unprecedented team of professionals, physicians, staff and volunteers. Initiatives of this scale cannot be accomplished without the shared vision and support of our community, business and philanthropic leaders, and we thank everyone who has been involved in the planning and fundraising of the new health complex, which will create a lasting legacy for our local communities for generations to come.
Did you know?
- Total size is almost one million square feet
- There are currently over 600 workers on site daily and this number is expected to rise to more than 700 workers as construction peaks
- More than 1.3 million combined work hours have been completed to date
- The building will be completely air tight by the end of the summer
- There are 25,000 pieces of equipment to purchase and install in the building prior to construction completion in November 2012
- The actual patient move takes just one day!
- The new health complex will have 1,400 sinks and 80% single patient rooms to promote best practice in infection prevention and control «
This May aerial photo is from the corner of Fourth Avenue and First Street. Just left of the photo’s centre is the main entrance with covered walkway and the Walker Family Cancer Centre is directly to the left of the main entrance. Bottom right shows the ER, with the 2 inpatient towers at the top right.
Create a better way
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Better surgical safety – An improvement in OR team communication means there have been no surgical site infections in total joint replacement surgical patients in the past year. To achieve this, the surgical program added an extra question to the surgical safety checklist, which the OR team goes through before each surgery. The new question about administering an antibiotic prompts staff to confirm that the patient received an antibiotic one hour before surgery. A formal policy and documentation strategy is in place to maintain consistency and sustain best practice on a go-forward basis. There is now 100% compliance in ensuring the antibiotic is administered in a timely manner and the result is zero infections.
- Improving hand hygiene – New motion-activated hand hygiene kiosks at Greater Niagara General Site are sending a strong message about hand hygiene. A voice message is triggered as people approach the kiosks, asking all passersby to clean their hands when they enter and exit the main entrance and other areas. In addition, hospital departments now have designated hand hygiene champions who are getting the message directly to the front line on the importance of frequent hand washing to prevent the spread of infection.
- Lean thinking – As with many other Ontario hospitals, Niagara Health embarked on a Lean transformation initiative in 2010 to improve the time it takes for patients to be admitted from the Emergency Department into an inpatient bed and then to be discharged. Every step in the patient’s journey is being examined and we’re adopting proven Lean techniques to eliminate wasted steps to better serve our patients/clients. The initiative is underway at St. Catharines General Site and improved processes will be used elsewhere.
- Refreshing our Patient/Client Bill of Rights & Responsibilities – After five years, Niagara Health decided it was time to take a fresh look at our Patient/Client Bill of Rights & Responsibilities and did extensive public consultation in English and French during the winter months. More than 800 patients, members of the public, and staff filled out a survey asking for feedback and the result is a new Patient/Client Bill of Rights & Responsibilities that incorporates new wording and is more comprehensive. The new document is posted online and will soon be available at our seven sites.
