(Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

DODGING PANDEMIC DELAYS

RIH patient care tower construction staying on course for 2022 completion

Jun 10, 2020 | 4:35 PM

KAMLOOPS — Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Phase One construction on the new Patient Care Tower at Royal Inland Hospital is on schedule for its 2022 completion.

Current health protocols require a limit on how many workers can be on site, along with adequate distancing. Executive Director of RIH Clinical Operations Tracey Rannie says EllisDon Construction has managed to keep worker conditions within those guidelines, and the tower is coming along.

“We’ll commission the whole building all in one. And what you see there behind me is great, they’re actually working on floor seven, and floor eight. And then later this fall we’ll have right up to level nine, so we’re looking forward to that.”

With Kamloops serving as a regional hub hospital for smaller communities in the area, Rannie says the additional space will be well utilized.

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“One of the big things is the single-patient rooms. Right now a lot of our rooms are two-person or four people in a room, and we’ll actually have single rooms, so we can have individual families in there to support, bathrooms, there’s more privacy so it’s quiet and people can recover quicker.”

A rendering of the future patient care tower at RIH (Image Credit: Interior Health)

Among the single patient rooms included in the project, the tower will also host a new neo-natal unit, additional operating space, and a roof top heli-pad for air ambulances. (Click here for more details about the tower project)

Phase One is scheduled to finish in 2022, with Phase Two starting immediately after for a 2024 completion date.

Phase Two will be the renovation of vacated space in the existing RIH building. This will including the emergency department, post-anesthetic recovery department, the pediatric unit and the morgue.