The Powell River General Hospital is ready to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients. But so far Powell Riverites have been successful in limiting the spread of this influenza.  We hope that physical distancing, mask wearing and isolating those who are infected will continue to prevent a rise in numbers of infections in our community.

Increased infection control measures have to be maintained so that the virus doesn’t get a foothold in the hospital or the Evergreen and Willingdon Complex Care facilities as well as in other vulnerable locations in the community . 

The Foundation is grateful for the support and commitment that our community is displaying as we all rally to manage COVID-19. We need to continue to "do as we have been doing" through this Winter and into the Spring of 2021 until a vaccine is developed and we can all gain immunity. 

The Foundation committed $208,000 to the purchase of equipment for the hospital in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020.  Equipment worth $85,000 was delivered and paid for in the year, including a second infant incubator ($26,000) and an Intensive Care bed ($40,000). The remaining equipment has been delivered and we are awaiting invoicing. This includes:

• Two Holter Monitors - portable devices for individual cardiac monitoring.  
• Two vital signs monitors - for bedside patient monitoring. Required due to increased activity.
• Prone pillows and portable suction machine - for COVID response.
• One bladder scanner  -  for the Obstetrics department so they don't have to borrow from other units.
• One ECG Cart - for the medical/surgical unit, to reduce the possibility of delay.

Purchase of the bladder scanner and ECG cart was made possible by a very generous donation of $100,000 from a local family. In addition to this equipment a large part of this donation will go towards a project in the hospital which is in the final stages of approval.       

Earlier in the year the Foundation committed to provide funding for training in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). This training requires bringing in specialists from out of town.  However it has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  PALS training prepares staff to recognize and intervene in pediatric cardiovascular arrest or other emergency presentations. The goal is to develop a high performance team who can apply systematic approaches to the assessment and treatment of seriously ill or injured children. 

​ With the generous support of donors in our community the PR Hospital Foundation was able to purchase six pieces of major medical equipment for acute care in the hospital in 2019 totalling $169,614.  The equipment shown here went to the maternity department where the medical team there is now better prepared to care for multiple seriously ill mothers and babies until transport can be provided to Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.  

​      With the change of our society demographic profile our acute care facility faces, at times, challenges around overcapacity and long wait times.  For many patients the Emergency Department is the place where they are first admitted to hospital and where both of these issues are most obvious and concerning.  Patients without a personal doctor may have no other option but to go to the hospital emergency room for care.  If you’re admitted to a ward for further acute care you may find over-crowding there also.  Perhaps the patient in the bed next to you has completed the acute care phase of treatment and is waiting to be transferred to a different care setting. Every day your health care team works hard to assure your quality of care, regardless of these challenges.
 
      The medical community’s term for the issue of wait times and over-crowding is Patient Access and Flow. This is a major issue for hospitals all over Canada.  Here in Powell River significant attention and resources are being spent to find local solutions to the problem. Kim Markel, Manager of Acute Services, has recently been involved in a multi-site project that looked at the issues of patient access to the right care in the right location and developed multiple approaches to addressing the issue. The project was guided by her participation in a quality improvement training program provided by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement which the PR Hospital Foundation supported.  
 
     Solutions to the problem are complex and varied.  One priority for Powell River is to increase the number of available home health care workers.  Melie de Champlain, our hospital’s Director of the Coastal Community of Care,  and the local campus of Vancouver Island University recently partnered to sponsor a special class for home health care workers. Fifteen people are enrolled and they will graduate and begin working in December 2019. This will mean more people at home will be provided with support to enable them to stay longer with their loved ones in the community.

The Powell River Hospital Foundation is raising funds to update the hospital’s maternity room. To date, the Foundation has committed to purchase two new infant incubators, an obstetrical ultrasound unit and an electronic fetal signs monitor. The old incubator, in the photo above, has been in service since 1996.

From 1994 to October 31, 2018 over $3.6 million has been spent & committed through the donations to the Powell River Hospital Foundation.
2018
Gamma Camera: ($46,921) shows how internal organs are working by taking images of the flow of medically- administered tracer radionuclides. Helps doctors make diagnoses. Status: on order.

It was eight years ago when the Powell River Hospital Foundation first funded a CT scanner for Powell River General Hospital.
Since then, thousands of patients have received this important diagnostic service within their community, instead of having to travel to the mainland or Vancouver Island.