St. Marys Memorial Hospital celebrates state-of-the-art patient rooms as part of $7.6M project

Patients moving into the east wing at St. Marys Memorial Hospital this week will be the first to benefit from a $7.6-million project that will see all 21 patient rooms renovated with state-of-the-art amenities.

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The first 10 opened Monday and will be occupied by Wednesday.

“It’s a long time in the works and a long time coming, and we couldn’t be more excited,” Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance president and chief executive officer Andrew Williams said.

The biggest project in the hospital’s history was intended to be much smaller, with each room getting some paint and new flooring.

“We quickly realized this refresh was, in fact, a rebuild,” said Arlene Lanting, the healthcare alliance’s inpatient and emergency department manager whose office is at St. Marys’ hospital.

There were workflow and infection control challenges, among other issues, said Francesco Sabatini, Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance facilities management project manager. The rooms needed to be reimagined, both for patients and staff, and all areas of the hospital were consulted to come up with “the most ideal model,” Sabatini added.

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“Our goal was to make these spaces bigger without adding to the footprint,” he said.

Space was created to make each room more accessible, especially in the bathrooms, which are now equipped with doors that can open both ways. Every room will have a mechanical lift to assist a patient getting from their bed to a wheelchair, which Lanting said will make nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and personal support workers happy.

There’s also more room for updated equipment. Rooms will have a headwall system that brings medical gases, emergency alerts and exam lights to every bed, while improved infrastructure behind the technology makes repairs easier so rooms aren’t out of service for weeks.

Digital clocks that kept patients awake at night have been replaced by analog versions that are synchronized to make sure the time is the same in every room — important when administering medication.

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“We’re really excited about this, and I think our patients will be excited,” Lanting said.

A negative pressure isolation room will have a mechanical system that’s separate from the rest of the hospital, a need that became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when patients with the virus were either placed by themselves in a standard room or in a makeshift room in the emergency department.

“Not the best way to deal with it,” Sabatini said, “but we made accommodations to keep the patients safe and the staff safe.”

The St. Marys Healthcare Foundation raised $5 million for the project through a pair of campaigns. John Wilkinson, the foundation’s board chair, called Monday’s grand opening “a special day” to celebrate the support that’s been received.

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Work will begin soon on the remaining 11 patient rooms, which are expected to be finished by March 2025.

“I’m always blown away by how supportive our communities are through the leadership of our foundations,” Williams said. “It’s a testament to the commitment and passion foundation members bring to their role and how they advocate for (patients), family members and caregivers who are going to need our facilities and look to us to ensure we have the highest quality facilities possible.”

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