Guelph General Hospital has turned space on its sixth floor into a special care nursery.
In a news release, the hospital said it’s been a redevelopment project for the past 17 months, thanks to a $6-million donation from the Together, We Care campaign.
The donation includes $1 million from the Pollard Family, which the nursery is named after.
Guelph General said the renovated space also features 10 private patient rooms and one room designed to accommodate twins.
Melissa Skinner, vice-president of patient services and chief nursing executive, said the most important improvement to the space, by far, is the integration of families.
“Those are precious moments in their lives, filled with both fear and excitement. We want to do everything we can to keep them connected through it all,” she said.
Two of the rooms are specialized for the sickest babies closest to the nursing station, allowing for close care, while one room is an isolation room for babies who require a higher level of care.
Get weekly health news
In addition to the nursery’s specialized spaces, it has improved patient safety, medication and feeding preparation and a fully renovated family birthing unit operating room and newborn resuscitation area.
Baby Hazel will be the first patient in the nursery, which opened on Tuesday.
Her father Tony, a resident from Mount Forest, said the nursery enables them to be with their newborn daughter and two sons.
- Avoiding these 3 things in middle age may delay dementia risk by 13 years
- Clinics, technicians unsure of Alberta’s new self-referral method for health tests
- Winnipeg police drug crackdown to resume after ‘positive results,’ chief says
- Rapid endometriosis tests now available in the U.K. What about Canada?
“We have two small sons at home and have been torn between wanting to be with them and not wanting
to leave Hazel,” he said.
“In the new nursey, one of us can stay in the room with Hazel while the other stays with our sons.”
The hospital said Hazel was a Thanksgiving baby, arriving five weeks early at five pounds and 10 ounces.
Source: Guelph General Hospital
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.