Sault Ste. Marie welcomes 21st century health care

The opening of the new Sault Area Hospital (SAH) elevates health care in Sault Ste. Marie and the rest of Algoma District to a level that most patients and staff probably never dreamed of. The new hospital on Great Northern Road defies comparison with the two former riverside sites – the Plummer Memorial and the General.

“It’s the first time in their entire careers that many of our staff will be able to work and deliver quality care in a modern, health-care environment,” said Ron Gagnon, hospital president and CEO.

The list of improvements is extensive. For starters, there’s a lot more space – 20 per cent more than the two previous sites combined, and up to 30 per cent more clinical space, including an Emergency Department between double and triple in size. Unlike the previous ED, every treatment space is separated by a physical wall, “so the days of being separated from the next patient by only a curtain are gone,” said Gagnon.

Patient comfort, privacy and healing are integral to the design of the building. Natural light streams into every patient room through large windows, and three outdoor courtyards provide patients, family members and staff with a tranquil space to relax and unwind. Designed by EPOH Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie, the building is an architectural gem.

“From a patient safety standpoint, there are numerous improvements,” said Gagnon. “Every clinical treatment area and every patient room now has hand washing sinks for physicians and staff, and in our medical/surgical area, 50 per cent of our rooms are private.”

Sault Area Hospital is one of the first large community hospitals in Ontario to have such a high percentage of private rooms, reflecting a trend in patient care that’s gaining ground across North America.
“It’s a substantial move forward from an infection control standpoint,” said Gagnon.

Also contributing to infection control is the new hospital’s dual corridor layout, which separates outpatients and visitors from inpatients and hospital staff.

“A public corridor runs north-south at all levels of the building and 30 feet over from that is a parallel corridor for the movement of staff, patients and supplies, so you’re not competing for space. There are also two different sets of elevators.”

Six state-of-the-art operating rooms have also been designed with infection control in mind. A sterile corridor and dedicated elevator to the hospital’s Medical Device Reprocessing Department are provided for the delivery of sterile instruments and supplies to the ORs. Soiled instruments and supplies used in surgeries are removed through a separate corridor and either discarded or returned via a separate elevator to the Medical Device Reprocessing Department, where they are washed, sterilized and stored for future surgeries.

“Sterile processing is one of the departments in the hospital that people forget about until there’s a problem, but it’s a very important to us to have sterile instruments to perform our work,” said Gagnon. “Now, we are going to have all new equipment, direct access to our ORs and a separation of the way we flow our clean and soiled instruments.”

Radiation

The addition of radiation treatment services at the new Sault Area Hospital is welcome news for thousands of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District cancer patients who, until now, have had to make the three-and-a-half hour trip to Sudbury Regional Hospital week after week.

“I went through this years ago when my mother travelled to Sudbury on a weekly basis,” said Gagnon. “It’s already a stressful enough experience to have to deal with cancer. To be away from your family for extended periods of time and to have to make that journey just adds to the stress.”

Sault Area Hospital becomes the first single bunker, satellite radiation site in Ontario and one of only a few in Canada. The Regional Cancer Program in Sudbury is overseeing radiation treatment in Sault Ste. Marie and radiation oncologists from Sudbury will take turns operating a patient clinic for new consults in the Sault.

Having all hospital services under one roof will result in a number of efficiencies. There will no longer be a need to transfer patients, supplies, and equipment from one building to another and valuable time will be saved by patients and staff navigating through the hospital. The Diagnostic Imaging Department, for example, is easily accessed from the ED, and all of the Ambulatory Care clinics are consolidated in one area.

Cutting-edge technology is an important driver for both patient care and efficiency. A new nurse call system using cordless “Voice Over IP” phones “will allow nurses to be on the floor and still be able to receive calls,” said Gagnon.

Before, patients pushed a button and a light went on over the door. The nursing station was also alerted, but patients would have to wait for their nurse to either see the flashing light or be tracked down by someone in the nursing station.

“Now, the call goes right to the nurse assigned to that patient,” said Gagnon.

Advanced technology, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and all of the other improvements will have a dramatic impact on the quality of health care available to the residents of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District, but healing is still dependent on having sufficient highly-skilled physicians, nurses and other health-care professionals.

Recruiting and retaining health care professionals will be much easier going forward, said Gagnon.

“We’re now able to offer a very contemporary facility with a lot of new technology. Sault Area Hospital will be very attractive to health care providers looking for a place to practice.”