08-11-2024, 09:44 PM
It certainly should be. There are always all sorts of considerations taken when it comes to where a hospital (or other services such as fire, police, ambulance...heck, even schools) can be placed in respect to travel time. Plus, there's no way both St. Mary's nor Grand River Hospital would choose to put the first new hospital in Waterloo Region in...what, over half a century? in the absolute worst possible place only accessible by Hummer SUVs. That's especially why I had to keep rolling my eyes at suggestions it would be way out at the dump or something. That'd had to be a last resort.
In the case of cardiac arrest (since that was mentioned), a stroke, suicidal tendencies, overdose or other acute emergencies the paramedics will take the patient to the closest hospital that can handle that...which is all of them. Yes, St. Mary's specializes in heart health but that doesn't mean none of the other hospitals are equipped to deal with such an event. They all are. If you had a heart attack across the street to Grand River Hospital and phoned 911, they aren't going to ship you to St. Mary's lol they will rush you in there immediately. They have both the staff and equipment needed to immediately intervene in such an event. Heck, if you had a cardiac event in the hospital, they don't rush you to the ER, a response team grabs the closest crash cart and comes to you. Hence the name of the cart, right? St. Mary's is where you'd then be transferred to for better specialized care in that situation.
What is changing is that only the new hospital will have a dedicated emergency room, but each hospital is capable of handling the most common medical issues and I am sure they would continue to be options if the paramedics deem the patient so at risk that they need to go there. They also have protocols in for handling things like mass causality events such as a bus accident, mass shooting or even as we witnessed recently, a pandemic. In 2020, the Freeport site of GRH quickly mobilized to convert parts of that hospital into hospital space to care for a potential overwhelming surge of covid-19 patience, even at great risk to the long term patients there (most are quite frail; nurses regularly joke "Freeport is where you go to die") despite it not being at all similar to a typical hospital.
I think the main difference going forward will simply be that if you require a visit to the emergency room, you'll go to the new hospital. But I suspect that the existing hospitals will still maintain some degree of readiness for unexpected or uncommon situations.
In the case of cardiac arrest (since that was mentioned), a stroke, suicidal tendencies, overdose or other acute emergencies the paramedics will take the patient to the closest hospital that can handle that...which is all of them. Yes, St. Mary's specializes in heart health but that doesn't mean none of the other hospitals are equipped to deal with such an event. They all are. If you had a heart attack across the street to Grand River Hospital and phoned 911, they aren't going to ship you to St. Mary's lol they will rush you in there immediately. They have both the staff and equipment needed to immediately intervene in such an event. Heck, if you had a cardiac event in the hospital, they don't rush you to the ER, a response team grabs the closest crash cart and comes to you. Hence the name of the cart, right? St. Mary's is where you'd then be transferred to for better specialized care in that situation.
What is changing is that only the new hospital will have a dedicated emergency room, but each hospital is capable of handling the most common medical issues and I am sure they would continue to be options if the paramedics deem the patient so at risk that they need to go there. They also have protocols in for handling things like mass causality events such as a bus accident, mass shooting or even as we witnessed recently, a pandemic. In 2020, the Freeport site of GRH quickly mobilized to convert parts of that hospital into hospital space to care for a potential overwhelming surge of covid-19 patience, even at great risk to the long term patients there (most are quite frail; nurses regularly joke "Freeport is where you go to die") despite it not being at all similar to a typical hospital.
I think the main difference going forward will simply be that if you require a visit to the emergency room, you'll go to the new hospital. But I suspect that the existing hospitals will still maintain some degree of readiness for unexpected or uncommon situations.