As you walk through the still-under-construction David E. Kampe Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital, several things strike you.
Expansive windows bring in a lot of natural light; single patient rooms — each with their own bathroom — will provide privacy and help infection control; large operating rooms will give doctors and nurses exceptional working space.
But what’s lurking behind the walls?
“It’s obviously a complex undertaking to plan and construct a hospital tower as an addition to the existing Penticton Regional Hospital,” said Michael Morton, Interior Health project manager. “There is a tremendous amount of work that goes on, both at the site and in the planning stages. With the opening of April 2019 approaching, crews are hard at work to make sure everything gets done on time.”
Construction of the new six-storey tower began in May 2016. There are now close to 400 workers on site in this final year of construction.
The most impressive feature on the first floor may be the stand-alone MRI suite — part of the medical imaging department. David Kampe donated $3 million to add a permanent MRI to the tower project. MRIs, with their intense magnetic pull, need to be housed in a fully protected room. A thin sheet of copper lines the inside of the walls and ceiling, as the MRI room is built like a room within a room.
The second floor features a series of five large new operating rooms, along with the urology suite, itself lined with lead as a protective measure. The third floor features space for the UBC Faculty of Medicine to train more health care workers, along with meeting rooms and a brand new Medical Device Reprocessing department, that will clean and sterilize surgical equipment, consolidated in one space.
Floors four through six are the inpatient units with single-patient rooms, each with their own bathroom, and again, large windows bringing in natural light to help patient care. The seventh floor is a mechanical room and on top of that is the helipad, drastically improving PRH’s ability to transfer patients.
“The new equipment and updated environment is an undeniable benefit, but simply having so much natural light in the building is going to be fantastic, both for patients and for staff,” said Maureen Thomson, PRH’s acute health services director, noting that user groups who have been touring the tower have been very pleased. “It’s been very uplifting. Everyone is completely in awe. It’s massive, airy and beautiful. It’s really coming together.”
Once the new patient care tower is completed, renovations in the existing hospital, including a major upgrade to the emergency epartment, will begin with completion anticipated by April 2021.
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