QEII Hospital Emergency Expansion – Grande Prairie

For years, being the charge nurse at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital’s emergency department in Grande Prairie has required lots of creativity.

It’s been an art form to conjure up space where there simply isn’t any, says Shelley Scorgie, who manages the department.

The QEII Hospital opened in 1984 and its emergency department was built to handle 22,000 visits a year. Now it has more than 50,000 visits a year, a quarter of them trauma-related.

A project currently underway will address the department’s massive space challenges.

The emergency department is being reconfigured in space that was freed up with the relocation of the rehabilitation medicine department.

In the outpatient department, an additional endoscopy suite and a dedicated intravenous (IV) therapy area will be added. The IV therapy area is a space that will have chairs for outpatient IV therapy. Many patients require IV antibiotics from one to three times per day so they can be treated without hospitalization. This new area will make their treatment more convenient.

The changes will improve patient flow and increase access to endoscopy procedures, says Tracey Parsons, outpatient department manager.

Changes in the emergency department will be dramatic, says Scorgie.

The project will double the number of trauma rooms to four and see the trauma area connected by a telestroke system to specialists around the province.

The department will grow to 21 stretchers and include a five-bed clinical decision unit where patients can be cared for without formal admission. All stretchers will be monitored and an urgent care area will be added. The department will also have a larger nursing station with improved privacy measures to protect patient confidentiality. Sight lines from the triage area to the waiting room will improve and the fast track and urgent care areas will have dedicated space. 

The renovations and expansion will address the facility’s current needs and help reduce wait times for patients, says Scorgie. 

“I can’t say enough about the benefits that we will see from the expansion.”

The project is expected to be complete in 2011.