Renovations to the 100 Mile District General Hospital’s wound room have been completed.
Funded by a $200,000 donation from the South Cariboo Health Foundation, the wound room’s walls and flooring have been replaced, a new storage area has been installed and three new VAC systems used to seal wounds using vacuum devices have been purchased for it. Ambulatory care nurse Shay Bevaart, who uses the room on a weekly basis, said the upgrade is a huge improvement for staff and patients.
“We wanted to make it more fresh, bigger and brighter so we could have more ebb and flow in the clinic,” Bevaart said. “I think the new design is great. It makes it so it’s not such a sterile environment. Most everyone coming in is mentioning how much bigger and brighter it is, which I think is good when you’re focusing on intricate parts of the body.”
South Cariboo Health Foundation president Richard Bullen and fundraising coordinator Brenda Devine were both satisfied with how the project turned out. The $200,000 came from the foundation’s Starry Nights campaign, which takes place from November to January every year.
Devine said that when they first started fundraising, they had no idea how generous the community was going to be. Their initial goal was $100,000, but they greatly exceeded that thanks to dozens of donations.
“I think it turned out fantastic. They’ve done a heck of a job and it’s a huge improvement over what they were dealing with before,” Bullen said. “The team is happy with it, and the patients are noticing the difference too.”
Kathy Munroe, manager of acute care, was excited to have the new renovations completed. She once again thanked the foundation and community for their generosity and support. The old room, she said, wasn’t nice to look at, so she feels its redesign will be appealing for clients.
“It puts them more at ease, makes them calmer, and it’s just a better environment,” Munroe said.
Bevaart has enjoyed doing wound care since coming to 100 Mile House five years ago. They deal with a wide range of wounds, both surgical and natural, and offer VAC therapy, IV therapy, and just about anything else required to recover from a wound.
“We try to keep clients and patients close to home so they don’t have to travel to other hospitals. That’s the main goal in putting time and money into the clinic, so that we can keep people close to home,” Bevaart said.
Bevaart said that on average the clinic sees between 10 to 15 patients a day, and is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Munroe said that works out to between 400 and 600 appointments a month.
With this project complete, Devine said the foundation will be meeting with hospital staff in the coming weeks to discuss their next fundraising project.
“We have to start fairly early because November rolls around pretty fast,” Devine said.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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