Further delay for completion of universal care, acute care

Completion of the first half of the new integrated healthcare facility has been pushed back two weeks.

Cypress Health Region expected it would have possession of the universal care wing and part of acute care on Jan. 5, but it has been delayed due to finishing touches. The health region now hopes to have the keys on Jan. 19.

“It’s just a little bit of finishing stuff that always seems to take longer than you want,” explained Trent Regier, director of rural health services. “We’ve gone through the bulk of the building and pointed out some of the deficiencies, so they’re working on some of that.”

A final cleaning of the facility by the contractor is also being done, and some electrical finishing remains.

“Because we’re not going to be operating in the building until the end of March or beginning of April, we just felt that it would be OK to delay moving equipment in until some of these small details are taken care of,” Regier said.

The move into the finished areas of the new facility is expected to take seven to 10 days. Once equipment and furnishings are moved over, staff orientations and training will begin.

Training is expected to take two to four weeks. This will not only include hospital staff, but long-term care staff as well for fire, emergency and other safety training. This will familiarize all staff with the facility’s emergency plan, evacuation procedures and other safety systems such as the fire alarm, nurse call system and security system.

“We train everyone on where fire extinguishers are located, where the emergency routes are and all those types of things,” Regier stated. “We’re still hopeful that we’re only going to be delayed about two weeks.”

Some of this training will occur again once the long-term care facility and other areas of the building become available. Maintenance staff will be a part of all the training.

“There’s some specific training related to the acute care side of the building that we will provide to our acute care team – the nurses, RNs, LPNs, our continuing care aids that work there, our lab staff, EMS staff, our physician group and our clinic staff,” explained Regier.

Work on the three long-term care wings and one acute care wing is scheduled to be completed on March 5.

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