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Progress Edition of The Canadian Statesman, Wednesday, June 29,1988 19 Hospital is Home of Innovative Health Programs Memorial Hospital, Bowman Bowman ville, has been very busy in the past few years. Besides continuing to provide provide top quality health care for the Town of Newcastle, hospital administrators have also made way for several new and innovative programs programs at the medical facility. facility. One addition to the hospital's hospital's programming is the discharge discharge planner/social worker worker service. Mrs. Margaret Van Dusen, Dusen, the discharge planner/ social worker provides a service service to patients, families, physicians, and others con cerned by assisting in implementing implementing appropriate discharge discharge arrangements for patienta who have recuperated recuperated and are ready to leave hospital. The benefits of early involvement involvement of the discharge planner/social worker include include identification of problems problems which could prevent or delay discharge nome. In consultation with the doctor and allied health professionals professionals such as nurses and physiotherapy, physiotherapy, Mrs. Van Dusen assists patients and their families hy evaluating their physical, social and emotional emotional needs and helping develop a realistic plan to ensure continuity continuity of care for the patient. patient. When it is not possible for a patient to return home because because he or she requires more specialized care, the discharge planner/social worker helps the patient and their family arrange transfer to long-term care, nursing homes, homes for the aged and other facilities which offer offer the best quality and care for the patient. The hospital recognizes that most people prefer to be at home. But very often patients patients and their families are Planning Under Way for Board of Trade Group Plans continue for the creation of an umbrella organisation composed of the various groups and individuals who make up the Town of Newcastle's Newcastle's business community. community. The Business Improvement Improvement Areas of Oro- no, Newcastle, and Bow- manville, the Newcastle Village and District Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor's Task Force on Industrial and Commercial Commercial Development, the Federation of Agriculture, Agriculture, and the Bow- manville Chamber of Commerce are among the organizations that would be included in such a concept. The_ organization has a potential of 500 individual individual business and commercial members. It would be called the Town of Newcastle Board of Trade. The proposed Board of Trade would work for the benefit of the whole town ning of special events, thus avoiding the possibility possibility of conflicts. Group insurance could be offered to small businesses by the Board of Trade, not to mention and would keep a perma- the mutual support such a board could make possible. possible. The board would take stand on local Newcastle business community community only if there was nent office open to provide provide information to potential potential investors. Information kept in this office would include labor force statistics, natural gas rates, and a issues affecting the Town of utility fees, among other unanimous agreement, details important to new Organizing of the new businesses. Board of Trade for the Various services Town of Newcastle is would be provided to the continuing, with one of membership and these would include special speakers and seminars on small business management, management, and an internal internal information centre the priorities being the creation of a constitution for governing the Board's actions. It is expected that the group will be fully opera te co-ordinate the plan- tional by early 1989 not aware of the community resources available. An important important aspect of the discharge discharge planner/social worker worker role involves coordination coordination of resources to meet identified medical needs. Mrs. Van Dusen works closely with professional professional and volunteer groups offering community services such as Home-Care, Public Health, Community Care and other organizations. The hospital reports that in the short time that this service service has been available, patients patients and their families seem pleased to find that the hospital hospital helps in arranging these necessary services at nome. Since the continued focus will be on providing health care to people in their own homes, Memorial Hospital continues to expect a large number of people to make use of the service. Another area of the medical medical facility that has been active active is the emergency department. department. The number of visits to the Emergency Department has increased dramatically over the past five years. Over 28,000 people were treated in Emergency in 1987. That is a 21% increase over the same period in 1982. Emergency staff have also been participating in a elementary school program initiated by the Durnam Regional Regional Police Force called "Values, Influences and Peers." On several occasions, classes of grade six students have visited the department for a two hour session. During During the visit, Head Nurse Chris Kooy, has given lectures lectures on drug and alcohol abuse as well as a demonstration demonstration of the equipment used to treat patients suffering suffering from those conditions. Memorial Hospital and Ontario Hydro have now established established procedures for the treatment of Hydro employees employees in the event of a contamination contamination at the Darlington Generating Station. These P rocedures are to safeguard oth Hydro workers and the public. The hospital's recreational recreational therapy department is also on the move. The department's department's main priority is to provide quality programming programming that will fulfill the chronic and acute patients' spiritual, intellectual, physical, physical, emotional and social needs. Programs that the department department will be offering consist of set programs, exercises, exercises, current events and therapeutic swims. The purpose of the therapeutic therapeutic swim is to allow chronic care patients to move around the water with ease, providing they have a one-to-one volunteer/patient ratio. The participants swim at the Newcastle Fitness Centre every Friday for one hour. This program incorporates incorporates other disabled seniors; not only for physical exercise exercise but also to boost a patient's patient's independence. Since there has not been such programming in the past, assessments have been circulated to reveal such needs. The department's goals are to ensure the "quality "quality of life" but also to work with area health care facilities facilities in educating the community community as well as creating a network network for the growing elderly population. Over the last few years, the physiotherapy department department has gradually outgrown outgrown its present surroundings, surroundings, and is eagerly awaiting the move into new and larger larger facilities built specifically for the department. As well as seeing the increasing increasing population create a higher workload, the physiotherapy physiotherapy staff have become involved in a number of new areas. These include: the diabetic diabetic education program; multidisciplinary conferencing; conferencing; pool program for inpatients; inpatients; co-operative program program for secondary students; students; and clinical placement for university students. In addition, plans are under way for the provision of limited limited evening hours for therapy- therapy- Future plans for the rehabilitation rehabilitation field at Memorial Hospital include the opening of an occupational therapy department in the new expansion. expansion. This will dramatically dramatically improve the hospital's ability to meet the needs of the community. The main thrust of this new service will be directed towards assisting assisting patients in acquiring the necessary skills to prepare prepare them to function independently independently when they are discharged discharged from the hospital. Other plans for Memorial Hospital include: the development development of policies to encourage encourage family centred maternity maternity care, which promotes the rooming in of infants with the mother; promotion of an early discharge program to reduce the length of stay following following the birth of a baby; securing the services of a chiropodist for future foot care clinics at the hospital; and recruitment to bring additional additional general practitioners, practitioners, an anaesthetist, and an obstetrician/gynedologist to the medical facility. It is obvious that there are many changes and advancements advancements happening within the walls of Memorial Hospital. The current construction of the $15 million expansion will only ensure that the hospital hospital will maintain its excellent excellent services and continue to add even more. I Durham Home Telephone Milk - Eggs delivered fresh to your door. 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