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New Mental Health Beds To Improve Patient Care at St. Paul's Hospital
<< BACK | Download Word File Vancouver, February 6, 2006 — St. Paul's Hospital is opening 15 new mental health beds to improve the care, treatment and safety of psychiatric patients, while enhancing the wait times and congestion in the hospital's busy emergency department. The 15 beds – made possible by Vancouver Coastal Health's funding of $2.5 million for one-time capital costs and $3.7 million in new annual operational costs – form the new Treatment and Evaluation Unit, which had its official opening today at St. Paul's Hospital. "Since 2001, the number of psychiatric patients admitted through emergency at St. Paul's has increased by about 20 per cent," said Carl Roy, President & Chief Executive Officer, Providence Health Care. "As a result, these patients have been experiencing longer and longer wait times in our emergency department. At the same time, the acuity and severity of illnesses of psychiatric patients have continued to pose new challenges in assessment and treatment. "With the new Treatment and Evaluation Unit, we will no longer have psychiatric patients, who require highly specialized care environments, waiting long hours in ER beds to be admitted into a hospital bed. They can be admitted straight into the new unit." Roy added that, unlike the previous facility, the great benefit of the new unit is it's specifically designed for mental health patients. "The Mental Health program at St. Paul's is a provincial resource, treating patients from throughout British Columbia. When designing the unit, we focused on meeting specific patient needs, ensuring staff safety and having a state-of-the-art facility that allows for a comprehensive approach to psychiatric treatment," said Roy. The facility has private and semi-private patient rooms, more seclusion rooms, natural lighting, more space and open areas, video monitoring and numerous specialized safety features. Dr. Kris Sivertz, Head of Psychiatry, Providence Health Care, said the new facility will also enable physicians and care providers to continue new research and treatment initiatives, focused on emerging complex patient populations. "We are seeing more and more patients with concurrent disorders – people with psychiatric illnesses coupled with abuse of a variety of drugs and substances," said Dr. Sivertz. "We'll be doing some ground-breaking research in this area to help determine the best treatment regimes for these patients." The Treatment and Evaluation Unit will start admitting patients within the next two weeks. Background Providence Health Care's Mental Health Program The Mental Health Program at Providence Health Care provides a range of coordinated emergency, inpatient, ambulatory and provincial services for people with a serious mental illness. St. Paul's Hospital handles 85 per cent of the most severe mental health emergency patients in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Mental Health includes the Eating Disorders Program, Reproductive Mental Health Program, and the Pain Program. The St. Paul's Hospital Eating Disorders Program is affiliated with the University of British Columbia and is home to a growing team of researchers. Reproductive Mental Health is affiliated with BC Women's Hospital and is actively engaged in research. The Pain Program continues to engage in research and provides interventions available nowhere else in British Columbia. The Mental Health program has 33 general beds (increased to 48 with the 15 new beds), seven eating-disorder beds, and four pain beds. - 30 - Contact: Gavin Wilson (Providence Health Care) 604-806-8583 (office) 604-667-4367 (media pager) gwilson@providencehealth.bc.ca << BACK | Download Word File |
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