Hospital hopes to have redesigned emergency department in three to five years

It’s a long way from becoming a reality, but Sault Area Hospital has a vision of redesigning its emergency department.

SAH has approached local architectural firm IDEA to develop a rendering for a redesign of the ED triage space.

The design is intended to improve staff safety by providing several exit points, improve the flow of patients, increase waiting room space and the visibility of security.

The SAH team met last week and looked at some design options said Ila Watson, SAH president and CEO, speaking to the hospital’s board of directors at its monthly meeting Monday evening.

“It’s very exciting. There’s lots of opportunity there,” Watson told the board.

However, Watson said “I really caution that this is work that we are developing and that we will have to apply for capital funding. It’ll be a lengthy process, probably three to five years, before we know whether we are able to successfully receive approval and funding to proceed.”

Meanwhile, Watson said SAH is “continuing to do other sorts of continuous improvements around our emergency department in the intervening time.”

SAH regularly provides updates to the public through social media regarding periods of high volumes of patients, long wait times and limited numbers of inpatient beds. 

More immediately and on another note, the board received a quick briefing on staffing from Armand Capisciolto, SAH Resources Committee chair.

“In 2023 the overall headcount increased by approximately 100 employees to bring the hospital to around 2,043 employees," Capisciolto said.

That comes in part due to the replenishment of Registered Nurse (RN) and Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) float pools in order to attract and retain internationally educated RNs and new RN and RPN graduates.

"However there are still open positions that are being sourced and as a result overtime continues to be a challenge in certain departments. From a risk standpoint the ability to recruit and retain talent continues to be a challenge,” Capisciolto said.

SAH says there are strategies in place to address recruitment and retention of staff.

One such strategy is reaching out to Sault College to ensure health sciences students at the postsecondary institution are aware of the opportunities that exist at the hospital, Capisciolto told the board.