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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, December 11, 2015 | 4 New OTMH Emergency won't be empty for long by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff With an increased number of patients expected to make a beeline for the new Oakville hospital's Emergency Department (ED), after the facility opens Dec. 13, Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) is showing how the patients will be accommodated. HHS Chief of Staff, Dr. Lorne Martin recently took the Oakville Beaver on a tour of the new Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital's (OTMH) ED. The space is 36,000 square feet, compared to the existing OTMH's 9,500-sq.-ft. department. It has more than twice the room to see patients -- with 56 stretcher surfaces, plus additional clinical space compared to the 27 stretcher surfaces at OTMH. "We're currently designed for about 45,000 visits a year (at OTMH)," said Martin. "We are opening designed for about 75,000 visits per year and we can certainly bump up for 95,000 or 100,000, especially if we implement and deploy the space we have." That said, OTMH hopes not everyone will visit at once. For those emergency patients who do visit, OTMH staff hope they will not be too quick to judge a book by its cover as the new ED features additional waiting room space to support patient flow into the hospital. However, that's not The exterior waiting room in the new Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) Emergency Department may appear small at first blush. That's because patients are streamed quickly into triage and treatment rooms. | photo by Justin Greaves ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) immediately clear upon arrival. The initial waiting room patients will come into contact with has a total of 16 chairs. Martin explains this is because the bulk of the waiting space has been redeployed inside department. Before the patients get there, however, they will go through a triage process. From the initial waiting area, patients will be taken to one of five triage rooms, where they can register and a triage nurse can determine to which part of emergency they should be sent. The target is for patients to be seen and triaged within 15 minutes of their arrival at the hospital. "It is really designed to get people in as quickly as possible and get them into that right area for care," said Martin. "We had one triage station at the existing hospital. We have five here so our capacity to move patients is much enhanced in this physical space." The triage area has a clinical support space INVEST GLOBALLY ACORN Oakville FROM OAKVILLE y r r e M stmas Chri f rom y our f riends a t MENTION THIS AD AND where patients with simple problems can be seen and treated. This area also allows for a more detailed triage assessment. For example, if someone came into Emergency with chest pains, they could receive an electrocardiogram in this space shortly after arriving for rapid assessment. If needed, blood samples can also be taken in this area to accelerate the process. Following triage, the patient is assigned a number between one and five. If a patient is assigned a one, that means the situation is an emergency and they need to be seen by nurses and doctors immediately. Five means the situation is not immediately serious: for example, a prescription renewal. After leaving triage, the patient is taken to the left or the right, depending on their assessment. One path leads to the ED's most acute area while the other leads to the least acute area. Martin noted the ambulance bay and the hospital's helipad are near the most acute area. He said the ambulance bay is a significant improvement over the awning at the Reynolds Street hospital that shelters arriving patients from the elements. "This is a full proper ambulance bay. This is heated. This is an area that can be used for mass casualty triage in a mass casualty situation," said Martin. see New on p.5 CELEBRATE WITH US! SAVE 25% OFF ONE IN-STOCK PRODUCT. Does not include third party funded items. A world-class asset manager--based in Oakville--Acorn invests over $100 million on behalf of institutions and accredited investors seeking true diversification to achieve beer portfolio returns and risk reduction. Let Acorn help you diversify your portfolio. Contact us to find out how at www.acorn.ca or 905-257-0773 549 Bronte Rd, Oakville 154 Norseman St, Etobicoke info@accessabilities.ca 905-825-5335 416-237-9654 www.accessabilities.ca Authorized ADP/WSIB/VAC Vendor. Licensed Medical Devices Establishment We will always happily honour our local competitor's prices.