Three busy emergency departments expanding

Upgrading facilities

Construction projects at three Alberta hospitals are underway to improve access to emergency departments.

Calgary’s Rockyview General Hospital

Calgary’s Rockyview General Hospital emergency department opened in June 2010 and includes 46 emergency treatment spaces, plus a 12-bed medical assessment unit.

The previous emergency department was designed to handle 100 patient visits per day but more than 200 are seen daily. The new emergency department is larger and the redevelopment offers increased privacy, more isolation rooms and improved treatment spaces.  

Edmonton's University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children's Hospital

Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital emergency department upgrade began in Spring 2010 to expand the pediatric area of emergency by 12 treatment spaces, with a dedicated entrance for ambulatory patients and a separate waiting room and triage/registration desk. Work is expected to be completed in 2011.

The pediatric emergency treatment spaces will be created with added privacy in a new child-friendly environment.

Since opening in 2001, emergency visits to the Stollery Children’s Hospital have increased from 12,000 to more than 26,000 in 2009/2010.

Grande Prairie’s QEII Hospital emergency department

Grande Prairie’s QEII Hospital emergency department was built in 1984 to handle 22,000 emergency visits per year; last year it handled almost 50,000 – a quarter of those visits trauma-related.

Expansion will double the trauma area, adding two new trauma rooms and built-in videoconferencing technology to connect doctors to specialists across the province.

Expected to open the fall of 2011, the expanded department will include an urgent care area and a five-bed unit for patients not requiring admission, as part of 21 monitored beds.

>> Read more about our Action On: Emergency initiatives.