Eagle Ridge Hospital's new executive director says a business plan is being developed to justify an expansion of the hospital's emergency room, and could be ready by June.
The news comes as the hospital celebrates more than 30 years of service in the Tri-Cities, which has grown exponentially in the intervening years.
When the ER was first built, it was meant to serve 15,000 patients a year but last year saw as many as 50,000.
"Recognizing that we have an ER with a growing population we are in the phase of creating a business case to expand our emergency department, it will be a nine month process and we will be forwarding that to the ministry in June," Heather Findlay confirmed.
Thursday, Findlay gave a health care report card to the Fraser Health public board meeting that laid out the challenges ahead for the hospital given a projected 18% population increase in 10 years, many of them aging seniors who will need specialized services.
The crunch can already be seen in hospital wait times, which Findlay said Eagle Ridge is trying to reduce with the implementation of a task force to look at communication and efficiencies.
Currently, the hospital has a target of admitting ER patients to a bed within 10 hours of arrival 55% of the time, but has only reached that goal about 32% of the time.
"We are talking about one to two persons a day (getting into beds more quickly), I see that as an attainable goal," Findlay said, acknowledging that while the target hasn't been met, and the rate of achievement fluctuates, the overall trend line is up, with 37% of patients getting into hospital within 10 hours in recent weeks.
"I think we'll see some improving in the next few months, we've got a task group of clinical staff to see where we can improve that, whether it be communications or transitions between hospital staff and physicians, insuring we decrease those delays as much as we possibly can."
