TECK EMERGENCY CENTRE - St. Paul's Hospital Foundation

TECK EMERGENCY
CENTRE
ST. PAUL’S HOSPITAL SETS A NEW BENCHMARK
FOR EMERGENCY CARE WITH A RECENTLY
COMPLETED RENOVATION.
Clockwise from above: (left to right) Dr. Eric Grafstein (also below right), head
of emergency services for Providence Health Care (PHC); Terry Selzler, project
coordinator at Teck; Don Lindsay, president and CEO of Teck; Kevin Falcon, then
Minister of Health Services; Dianne Doyle, president and CEO of PHC; and Stephen
Shapiro, president and CEO of St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation unveil the new Teck
Emergency Centre (here and below); (right) the renovation reduced wait times for
patients and created a more efficient and effective work environment.

y yolanda brooks
photography brian smith
Life in a typical emergency department can often mean long
periods of waiting and stress, punctuated by moments of high
drama. Thanks to a $14.7-million renovation, St. Paul’s Hospital’s
newly named Teck Emergency Centre is anything but typical.
When you first enter the rejuvenated
department, you quickly note the bright, clean,
smart surroundings. However, the department
has undergone more than just a superficial
makeover. With more space, an improved layout,
and new practices and technology systems
in place, the Teck Emergency Centre is setting
the pace for emergency medicine in hospitals
across Canada.
When Dr. Eric Grafstein arrived at St. Paul’s
emergency department in 1993, the facility
was definitely showing its age.
“The biggest problem was that we had
outgrown the space,” explains Grafstein,
head of emergency services for Providence
Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s. “At the
time I started working at St. Paul’s, we were
seeing about 40,000 patients a year. Our volume
has grown by more than 50 per cent, to
67,000 patients, so there really was no place
to put patients.”
Despite the conditions, St. Paul’s staff and
physicians were up for the challenge, says
Andrew Saxton Sr. A noted philanthropist
and founder of the Grouse Mountain Skyride,
Saxton was sent to the emergency department
after his family physician grew concerned
about his fluctuating prostate-specific antigen
levels; Saxton credits his physician and
St. Paul’s with detecting his prostate cancer
early enough to be treated and was inspired to
make a donation to the renovation project.
“On more than one occasion, I had to show
up with some very bad pain at the emergency
department,” says Saxton. “The first person I
saw was so compassionate that by the time I
was signed up and sent to lie down, half my
pain was already gone just because of the
warmth and compassion that the people at
every level there had shown.”
21ST-CENTURY UPGRADE
While emergency medicine has always been
well equipped to deal with patients with critical
injuries, patients with serious but non-lifethreatening
injuries and the walking wounded
were often less well served by one-size-fits-all
emergency departments. Hospital administrators
at St. Paul’s, together with emergency
physicians and architects, spent many months
working to develop an emergency department
that could meet the changing demands
of the new millennium.
The renovated space features a new rapid
assessment zone and groundbreaking diagnostic
and treatment area. In addition, the
acute resuscitation space, which serves the
needs of the most seriously ill patients, is now
double its former size.
The four-bed rapid assessment zone is
ideal for patients with serious but stable illnesses
who need treatment quickly, but don’t
require long stays or a full battery of tests.
They are usually in and out of the department
within a couple of hours, freeing up beds
quickly and shortening wait times.
The 24-hour diagnostic and treatment
unit allows for aggressive monitoring and
treatment of conditions that in the past led
to hospital admission. The unit, which is
overseen by an emergency nurse and nurse
practitioner, serves patients who initially
are too sick to go home; many of them often
become well enough to go home within
24 hours.
With these units up and running, the
emergency department not only provides
a more responsive service for patients, it
reduces the demand for in-patient space,
which Grafstein calls “the most precious
space in the hospital.”
New technology plays a huge role in
improving the patient experience. Bedside
computers allow direct access to electronic
patient records, while electronic tracking
boards (similar to the arrival and departure
boards at airports) allow staff to keep tabs
on patients’ whereabouts, status and treatment
times.
Other upgrades include a new triage and
admitting area as well as the streamlining of
the triage and registration process, which
now takes five to 10 minutes, instead of 15 to
20 minutes. To enhance safety and security,
the space has separate entrances for the public
and for patients arriving via ambulance.
Since the renovations began in October
2007, patient wait times have dropped by an
impressive 20 per cent. Positive feedback from
patients and staff further demonstrate how
the changes are being felt on the ground.
“It has become a more pleasant place to
work, and it seems to me it is a lot easier to
recruit and retain staff,” observes Grafstein. “I
think it is a place that everybody takes pride
working in, and I think that is important.”
The results are so impressive that emergency
departments in hospitals throughout
B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan are looking
to reduce wait times by implementing strategies
similar to those at St. Paul’s.
LEADING THE CHANGE
The Vancouver-based mining company, Teck
Resources, completed the funding of the renovation
with a $2.5-million gift, part of which
will be used to create the Teck Emergency
Centre Innovation Fund to support research,
academic productivity and the development
of best practices at the hospital. In addition to
Teck’s gift – the single largest corporate and
capital donation in St. Paul’s history – the
Province of British Columbia, through Vancouver
Coastal Health, provided $10 million
in funding support and 1,200 individuals and
corporate donors combined to give more
than $2.4 million.
“We are grateful to Teck for stepping forward
with this transformational gift to our
emergency department, which is one of the
busiest in the province and now one of the
most technologically advanced in the country,”
says Stephen Shapiro, president and CEO
of St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation. “Their generosity,
and the generosity of our other donors,
is a signal to the community that St. Paul’s has
a bright future ahead of it.”
Supporting the renovation, which will
benefit residents from across B.C., reflects
Teck’s commitment to health and safety.
“St. Paul’s has created a new facility that
will enable its team of professionals to help
more people, save more lives and put more
people on the road to recovery,” says Don
Lindsay, president and CEO of Teck. “There
is no doubt that St. Paul’s Hospital is a valuable
resource for the residents of Vancouver
and the rest of B.C., and I am pleased that
Teck has helped to make this a reality.” ■
Spring/Summer 2011 • Promise 9