Just over two weeks away from the official opening of the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital, officials with Alberta Health Services are hoping for a smooth transition for patients.
Operational Lead Candice Edey says that while they are excited to open, there is still much work to be done in the coming weeks to prepare for the grand opening.
“As far as patients being moved, the plan is to move those patients over in 1 day. That will start December 4th at 6 A.M. and QEII will be closed for new admissions. All new patients will be coming to the GPRH at that point. Between 13 and 16 EMS vehicles will be moving those patients on December 4th to our facility,” she says.
Stacy Greening, the Senior Operations Officer for Grande Prairie Area is particularly excited about the various features that will help set the hospital apart from others in the province. GPRH will represent 1 of 5 sites in the province that will provide radiation therapy.
Greening and Edey are excited for students pursuing nursing careers with Grande Prairie Regional College to have the best of both worlds at GPRH.
“We’ve always had students on our site at the QEII, but just having classes located here from the very moment you start your program will make a huge difference. We hope that it will inspire the students and help them see what kind of a career they’re looking at for themselves. We really hope to attract students so they can learn in an environment like this. We are really excited about our partnership with GPRC,” they say.
Connect Care is an electronic medical record system that GPRH will have in place when the hospital opens on December 4th. Connect Care was first put into the QEII system on April 10th of 2021 and will continue at GPRH. This means that people coming from anywhere in the province can have their medical records transferred over, electronically.
