Latest news with #TiffanyBoyd
CBC
03-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Whitehorse hospital opens $33M mental health unit
The Whitehorse hospital says its new mental health unit is going to transform in-patient mental-health care. The grand opening of the Fireweed mental health unit was on Monday. The new unit will provide in-patient care for a maximum of 30 days to people with a mental health diagnosis. The renovation at the hospital took two years and cost nearly $33 million. The new unit replaces the secure medical unit, which was widely criticized for lacking basic safety features and failing to provide staff with violence prevention training. In her remarks at Monday's opening, health minister Tracy-Anne McPhee acknowledged that the secure medical unit — which was essentially eight rooms and a hallway — was not equipped to provide adequate care. "This new unit changes that," McPhee said. The new wing is shaped like a horseshoe, spanning 10,000 square feet with a communal kitchen, private outdoor smoking area, and healing room. There are eight private bedrooms, with capacity to expand to 12 beds later. There are also three seclusion rooms, which contain only a toilet and bed, adjacent to an observation room. "We know this unit won't solve every challenge, but it's a start," said Tiffany Boyd, Yukon Hospital Corporation CEO, at the grand opening. The new unit will be fully operational by July. The eight beds in the former secure medical unit will go back to general in-patient medical and surgical use. Mental health programming completely 'redesigned' The Fireweed unit has new security features lacking in the secure medical unit, said Kirsten Wilson, clinical care manager at the hospital. There are "code white" buttons on several walls for staff to signal when a patient is aggressive. Staff will also wear personal alarm systems. Most of the rooms have two exits and other lock-down features. Wilson said staff have also taken some additional online and in-person training in safety and de-escalation. The unit will be staffed by three nurses, a team lead and consultant psychiatrists. Stephanie Ralph, executive director of patient care, said an overhaul of mental health care is on the way as well.
CBC
30-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Whitehorse hospital making improvements after equipment sterilization problems
Water and steam quality are to blame for a months-long equipment sterilization issue at Whitehorse General Hospital that triggered the cancellations of nearly 150 surgeries and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A report released Monday details a review of the issue that caused residue on surgical instruments from the end of January to early April. The 363-page report, written by third party contractors, provides over one hundred recommendations to improve hospital infrastructure. Tiffany Boyd, CEO of the Yukon Hospital Corporation, says three-quarters of those recommendations are already underway. "We wanted not only to resolve the issue in a very thorough and complex way to protect our community and our population for the future, but we wanted to build redundancy. Because we're a rural and remote site, having redundant capacity is really important," Boyd said. The Whitehorse hospital has been back to its full surgical capacity, and completing its own sterilization on site, since April 7. It uses reverse osmosis treated water in a final rinse of equipment to ensure instruments are properly clean. To plan for any future emergencies, the hospital has purchased extra sets of equipment and staff have developed a system to sterilize equipment off-site if necessary. It involves packaging the instruments, sending them to Vancouver where staff sterilize them, re-pack them in sterile packaging, and return the equipment to careful airline staff who ensure the instruments arrive back to Yukon intact. "That pathway now exists and we can use it anytime we need," Boyd said. The hospital is also working on implementing other recommendations, including installing a reverse osmosis system and ultrafiltration systems — two methods of treating water. The report also recommends installing new water softeners, discarding expired supplies, keeping the door to the sterile storage room closed and better marking clean and soiled supplies. In the two months of sterilization issues, the hospital cancelled 165 surgeries. Most of those, 135, were cataract surgeries because the small equipment is too fragile to be transported for sterilization offsite. Dr. Alex Kmet, the chief of medical staff with the Yukon hospital corporation, said the disruptions had a major impact on patients and doctors having to make those decisions. "Deciding and recognizing that you have to preserve equipment for a potential emergency, knowing that there's a person scheduled and then deciding 'is it OK for me to go ahead or not' that is a profound moral and ethical issue on the providers," he said. "I have so much respect for my colleagues who navigated that." Boyd said the issues cost about $500,000 total, with the money being spent on shipping instruments for offsite sterilization, buying more equipment and consulting fees. She said there will be further costs to implement the consultants' recommendations and improve their infrastructure, but the hospital corporation will work with "partners" to ensure cost isn't a barrier.
