GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE Rural Ontario hospital puts four-pillar plan in place to keep patients, staff and physicians safe By Dave Millan
C
OVID-19 evolved from an epidemic to a pandemic in a few short weeks, increasing demands on the facilities team at Brockville General Hospital (BGH). Located between Ottawa and Kingston, Ont., BGH, as well as its partner agencies in the Thousand Islands region, faced many of the same challenges as larger hospitals
24 CANADIAN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
and additional ones presented by a primarily older and rural population. The scientific community and various levels of government researched how the virus affects the population, which resulted in new protocols being developed and set forth. This has placed increased demands on the hospital’s facilities department. For instance, in-hospital care for COVID-19 patients is now required. To satisfy this need,
patient flow had to be adjusted to ensure negative pressure rooms are available to the clinical teams. Leading up to the state of emergency declared by the Ontario government in March, BGH’s senior leadership established an incident command structure. This allowed for formalized and standardized planning of operations and communication during the pandemic.
