With the money firmly in place, project leaders say the St. Mary's Hospital expansion continues to move forward.
"Everybody talks about [how] St. Mary's is never going to happen, [how] we've talked about this for years, [how] the money isn't committed," said Dave Mackintosh, regional director of regional facilities planning and project development for Vancouver Coastal Health, at a public information meeting Thursday, Nov. 19. "Well, the project is going to happen."
The bulk of the project's $44 million price tag is now firmly committed to the point of being "in the bank," he said, with the largest pieces of funding coming from the Ministry of Health Services and the Sunshine Coast Regional Hospital District. The $44 million includes a projected $2 million for medical and non-medical equipment, which Mackintosh said they're hoping to see raised in the community by the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation and the St. Mary's Hospital health care auxiliary.
But, he said, the project will go ahead, even if that $2 million isn't raised.
"We still have enough to build the building," he said.
Currently the schematic design is done, design development is nearly done, and the next step is working drawings -which are slated to be completed by January 2010. In February, they'll be going for tender for the excavation work. The excavation, he said, should clinch the project in the public eye.
"I don't think anybody's actually going to believe me [that the expansion is happening] 'til they actually see the tractor on the site of the hole," he said.
In April, they'll go for tender for the building construction, which is scheduled to be completed in October, 2011. And finally, renovation work, he said, should be completed by September, 2012.
In total 5,300 square metres will be added and 850 square metres will be renovated. "Basically you're doubling the size of the building you have right now," he said.
Moreover, he said, the building will achieve four separate "firsts" for Vancouver Coastal Health. For starters, it will be the first hospital with 100 per cent single rooms.
"It has been proven in the States that [having single rooms] reduces medications, it reduces medication error, it reduces infections, it's quieter because you can shut the door, patients recover quicker so your length of stay is shorter, [there's] a lot more privacy and privacy for the family, and it reduces slips and falls because [patients] don't have so far to go," he said.
The expansion will introduce Point of Care delivery -a system which stocks 85 per cent of the most common nursing supplies in every patient room, so nurses don't have to go on constant runs to distant supply rooms. This, he said, has been shown to save two nursing hours for every 12 hour shift. This is the first time in the region that there has been a Lean review -which tests for efficiency and flow - all the way through the hospital planning process. And the building will be the first in Vancouver Coastal Health to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold designation as a green building.
A second meeting, to allow the public to ask questions and learn more about the expansion plans, will be held at the Cedars Inn in Gibsons on Monday night, Nov. 30, from 7 to 9 p.m.
