BY RYAN WELLICOME
Lacombe Express
The Lacombe Hospital and Care Centre’s emergency department is slated to receive $500,000 worth of renovations beginning in the New Year.
The funds have been provided to the Lacombe facility by Alberta Health Services (AHS) as part of its three year rolling Infrastructure Maintenance Program (IMP) plan for the 2015-16 to 2017-18 fiscal years.
“All of it’s really with the purpose of trying to improve the function and utilization of that general space within the emergency department,” said AHS Central Zone Chief Zone Officer Kerry Bales.
“Helping to improve the waiting room area, helping to improve the line of sight between staff and people that would be in the waiting room and helping to improve the flow of how people would move through that area.
“Designed around the idea of making it the best work environment we can for our staff as well as the best experience for the patients.”
Upgrades to the facility will include improvements and enhancements to the reception, waiting room and nursing desk areas.
According to Bales, the upgrades’ design phase is underway and construction could begin early in the New Year, depending on the set up of building contracts. Bales said the upgrades were not critical in terms of safety but were assessed from more of a modernization and functionality standpoint.
He added, in particular, a better line of sight between patients and staff can be beneficial for both.
“We have people that are going to be in a waiting room and we want to make sure those patients can see staff and staff can see those patients so they can monitor if a situation were to change.”
Funding for AHS’s IMP plan was provided by Alberta Infrastructure with $50 million in province-wide health facility upgrade projects already completed and $131 million planned for the coming fiscal year.
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