Hospitals can sometimes seem like a scary place for those needing treatment.
The new Teck Acute Care Centre at BC Children’s Hospital is aiming to make hospital visits for young patients and expectant mothers more comfortable.
“Parents who are leaving their homes and leaving everything behind are finding a place they can call home,” Premier John Horgan said during the unveiling of the new centre Friday.
Officially opening to patients on Oct. 29, each area of the building is modelled after a different part of B.C. with the hope that children, women and their families can feel at home while receiving care.
The eight-floor, 640,000 square-foot centre has 231 private patient rooms, medical and surgical in-patient units and procedural suites, as well as a transplant department, pediatric intensive care unit and a high-risk labour and delivery suite.
blackpress.newsengin.com
While receiving long-term treatment, patients and families will have access to basic resources like laundry facilities, family lounges and dining rooms as well as play areas, resource rooms and storage spaces.
The new building also features a larger children’s emergency department, additional patient beds and an expanded neonatal intensive care unit ― all equipped with single-patient rooms.
Rooms where intensive medical procedures occur have also been designed to be more comfortable for young patients. In the operating room where bone marrow extractions occur, the ceiling is lit with hundreds of LED lights placed to show major constellations as a way to recreate the night sky over Vancouver.
Women’s urgent care centre also opens
This month’s opening of the new acute care centre marks the completion of the second phase of three in the BC Children’s and BC Women’s Redevelopment Project.
blackpress.newsengin.com
The phase also includes the opening of the BC Women’s Urgent Care Centre, aiming at bridging the gap between mothers and their newborns post-birth.
In the new state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), parents with a baby in intensive care will be able to sleep next to their baby’s incubator as early as 22 weeks into the usual 40-week pregnancy.
The new centre is expected to see about 13,000 patients a year, and includes 10 larger, single-patient rooms that will provide a quieter space with increased privacy.
www.twitter.com
