Shea Weber Foundation
Transforming Patient Care
Shea Weber may no longer be scoring goals, but he is winning deep gratitude at Shuswap Lake General Hospital.
A $223,809 donation from the Shea Weber Foundation will improve patient care primarily in the obstetrics department.
Infant care will be enhanced with two new Panda Warmers in which newborns can be monitored consistently while receiving immediate life saving treatment should the need arise.
“The new Panda Warmers replace outdated technology, standardize care and simplify procedures for all staff,” says the hospital’s Clinical Operations Manager Val Kloska, noting the cost of the two units is $80,294. “The ones we are replacing are 14 and 15 years old and ready to be updated with the newest, top-of-the-line equipment.”
Panda Warmers provide immediate thermal support to stabilize a newborn’s temperature after delivery, says Kloska, who describes the Panda Warmer as an all-encompassing resuscitation system. As well as keeping infants at a specific temperature, they have a timer and weight scale and can provided artificial breaths and help measure oxygen levels.
Another potential life-saving piece of equipment is the $28,515 fetal monitor that can track the health status of the unborn fetus and provides valuable assessment data, says Kloska.
“The monitor can alert the team to early warning signs of distress or health issues,” she adds. “It gives in-the-moment fetal heart rates and maternal contractions, providing us with a picture of fetal and maternal well-being.”
The purchase of a $35,000 labour and delivery bed will give moms a safe, secure birthing area and can meet the needs of more complex labour and delivery. The bed is comfortable and has several different positions available to best support the process of natural birth.
Defibrillators are needed not just in the obstetrical department but in all hospital wards, Kloska says, pointing out Shuswap Lake General is in need of six, at a total cost of $240,000. The ones that are currently in use have reached ‘end-of-life’ and need replacing.
Thanks to the Shea Weber Foundation, the hospital will receive two new $80,000 defibrillator/cardiac monitors. These vital life-saving devices deliver an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm during a life-threatening arrhythmia like ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia.
Shea Weber has high regard for the Foundation that works so hard to raise much-needed equipment for the hospital. “I give back to the community of Shuswap because it made me who I am,” he says.
Surgical Equipment Upgrade
Up-to-Date and Efficient
Safety, efficiency and best care possible!
These are the goals of Shuswap Lake General Hospital staff in providing patient care. Meeting those goals means having up-to-date and efficient tools.
Several items on a wish list provided by surgeons and reprocessing staff have been purchased, thanks to the Shuswap Hospital Foundation.
Anna Davis, lead tech in the Medical Device Re-processing Department is delighted her department recently acquired two state-of-the-art sterilizers – one provided by Interior Health and the other by the Shuswap Hospital Foundation.
Prior to the acquisition, the sterilization process was challenging and time-consuming with second-hand equipment – one washer handed down from the Kootenays and the other from Northern BC.
The new machines are digital, quiet, have faster cycles and staff will now be able to use both at one time. “We get very excited when we get new stuff,” says Anna enthusiastically. “This is up to par with the big guys – we’re not a second-hand store anymore, we’re like the Gucci store.” Anna stresses the importance of the sterilization in providing safe patient care. Six reprocessing staff members collect soiled instruments from hospital wards every morning and immediately after surgeries Monday through Friday. Instruments are soaked over the weekend and collected for sterilization first thing Monday morning, says Anna.
While the foundation might not be aware of every little department in the hospital, they understand the need for us to have the right equipment, she adds.
Over in the operating theatre, the foundation has fulfilled a request by a new orthopaedic surgeon. Dr. Julian Sernik has received a new selection of instruments, including a MICA drill, and a headless compression screw kit. These additions will enable him to better perform bunion surgery as well as a wide range of foot and ankle reconstruction procedures, improving outcomes for local patients.
“Everything you could imagine about your foot I do in Salmon Arm,” says Dr. Sernik, who performs surgeries for deformity corrections, fusions, post-traumatic injuries, and more. “Orthopaedics is a rapidly changing and evolving field, and it’s very important to have access to modern equipment.”
Dr. Sernik says he is delighted that the Foundation has purchased equipment that will assist him in performing bunion and other complex reconstructive surgeries. He notes that while bunions are relatively common, if left untreated they can lead to serious complications.
As well as being painful, bunions can cause a loss in foot function, making it difficult to walk and robbing a person of their ability to move independently.
Dr. Sernik points out that modern surgery using contemporary equipment allows for earlier walking, much lower complication rates, reduced recurrence of deformity, earlier weight bearing, and better pain control.
“It’s just a better experience,” he says. This surgeon is very busy, with some 600 patients booked on waiting lists in Vernon and Salmon Arm. He operates locally about six times every Wednesday.
He maintains that hospitals like Shuswap Lake General are vital to the communities they serve—particularly when they can support visiting specialists with up-to- date equipment, a slate of anesthetists, and specially trained nurses available in the OR. “In order to keep them, you have to have enough surgeons,” he says. “It’s very important. Without them, you would rapidly lose qualified nurses.”
And the new omni retractor will assist the hospital’s five general surgeons in performing bowel surgery, making a large open surgery much less difficult.
“The Omni Retractor is gorgeous; it is a beautiful piece of equipment,” says surgeon Stephen Hiscock, noting there are challenges in retracting surrounding organs when operating on someone’s insides and the new, first-class retractor will make it easier to operate with one surgeon instead of three. “In the bigger centres they have surgical residents to hold retractors, but we don’t have that luxury.”
As always, Dr. Hiscock is quick to thank the Foundation for acquiring equipment that is better for both doctors and patients.
Patient Care Coordinator Jessica De Arcangelis points out that Shuswap Lake General Hospital is serving patients from as far away as Revelstoke, Vernon and Kamloops.
“We’re way busier than we were and the more equipment we have, the more we can do here,” she says, pointing out the waitlists for gynaecology are long. “Dr. Thomas Wroz got the equipment he needed, the most up-to-date hysteroscopes, four of them paid for by the Foundation and one paid for by Interior Health.”
Hospital purchaser Ken Meier says that without the Foundation, and the community that supports it, the hospital wouldn’t be able to progress as well as it does.
Medical Imaging
New Ultrasound System
Doctors will get a sharper picture of what’s going on beneath the skin with the new Philips EPIQ Elite, which recently arrived in Shuswap Lake General Hospital’s Imaging Department.
Philips Healthcare describes the machine as a new class of premium ultrasound that features an exceptional level of clinical performance, workflow, and advanced intelligence to meet the challenges of today’s most demanding practices.
The EPIQ Elite platform brings ultimate solutions to ultrasound, with clinically-tailored tools designed to elevate diagnostic confidence to new levels.
“It far surpasses conventional ultrasound performance to reach new levels of definition and clarity,” says the manufacturer, noting “it creates extraordinary real-time images with exceptional frame rate, uniformity, and penetration.”
Imaging Department Professional Practice Lead Kim Mead says the advanced equipment is similar to the older version purchased in 2011. “That’s a lot of years for this type of technology and that is amazing,” says Mead of the equipment that is used daily primarily for ultrasound guided biopsies and small-part imaging. “There’s nothing wrong with the old one, it’s just old.”
But the new one brings everything into clearer focus.
“This system has more power and performs high-quality diagnostic exams with some advancements in software,” she says. “It has the ability to perform general and echo exams due to its dual platform technology.”
Mead says her department continues to buy equipment from Philips because, unlike many technology companies, the accessories already in use will work with the new ultrasound machine.
“In this case, the cameras (or probes) that are still in great condition can attach to the new machine, saving the department tens of thousands of dollars,” she says.
The cost of the new and sophisticated ultrasound equipment is $75,000 plus tax, and Mead, once again, thanks the Shuswap Hospital Foundation for making the purchase possible.
“This allowed us to get the newest available machine and software, so we can continue to provide the highest level of patient care” she adds.