Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Children's Hospital London Health Sciences Centre
London Health Sciences Centre Expands Children’s Emergency Department by 50 Per Cent
London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has expanded its paediatric emergency department (ED) at Children’s Hospital by 50 per cent. With the support of Ontario’s Ministry of Health and donor funding through Children’s Health Foundation, the expansion consists of eight new beds and two dedicated procedure rooms in a child friendly and family-centred setting. Since September 24, 2024, the expansion has seen more than 2,628 patients, helping to reduce wait times and ensure patients and their families are seen more quickly.
As the community around it grows, Children’s Hospital has seen an increasing demand for paediatric emergency care in recent years. The expansion from 20 to 30 care spaces will allow the team at Children’s Hospital to help meet the growing demands for paediatric emergency care in southwestern Ontario.
“We’re really proud of this new space that has provided us with the opportunity to reduce capacity pressures and move patients into care spaces faster,” says Dr. Rod Lim, Director of Paediatric Emergency. “This is a great first step towards meeting the growing demands for specialty paediatric emergency services.”
Children’s Hospital is a renowned regional provider of high quality urgent and emergency health care to patients under 18 years old. As one of the few dedicated paediatric emergency departments in Ontario, it provides care to a geographic area that covers a third of the province. Each year, the team in the Children’s ED provides care through 47,000 visits for approximately 36,000 patients.
One of those patients is Zak, a 10-year-old resident of London, who was brought to the hospital by his mother when he fell at the playground and suffered an injury to his wrist. Zak was one of the first children treated in one of two new dedicated procedure rooms in the Children’s ED. The experience left his mother, Zoe, feeling grateful for the outstanding care her son received.
“When we realized he was going to need special attention and care, it was amazing to know that everything was going to be right here,” she says. “The way they treated Zak meant everything to me. The emergency department was very busy, but it didn’t feel that way to us. The attention and care we received made it feel like Zak was the only patient there.”
The two new procedure rooms were designed to provide a private and calm environment for children who require specialized care – this can include repairing lacerations, removing foreign objects or, in Zak’s case, the administration of anesthesia and application of a cast for a broken bone in his wrist. In a little under five hours, Zak received diagnostic X-rays, had a straightening of his fracture, had a plaster cast placed on his arm, and reviewed follow-up X-rays with the attending physician before being sent home.
“Our government is taking action to ensure all Ontarians, at every stage of life, have access to the care they need, when and where they need it,” says Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “The expansion of London Health Sciences Centre’s Children’s Emergency Department is improving access to care for hundreds of families across the region and builds on our government’s historic $330 million investment in paediatric care.”
The construction began in early 2024 and the space opened this past fall. The space is being funded with $3 million in donor support to Children’s Health Foundation.
“Children's Health Foundation is very excited to fund this expansion to benefit the many children who use the Emergency Department,” says Scott Fortnum, President & CEO of Children’s Health Foundation. “We continue to raise funds for this important initiative and are so grateful to our donors for making this a reality.”
The design process involved input and collaboration from various members of the paediatric emergency team. The priority was to maximize the number of care spaces, says Dr. Lim, but staff and physicians were also consulted on elements like patient flow, family and child-friendly spaces, and maintaining privacy.
“It’s been fantastic having this much needed expansion,” says Lim. “We’ve had such extraordinary pressures that we needed a solution, and this has had an immediate impact on patient flow. We’ll need to continue growing our capacity alongside our growing community, but I’m proud of where we are right now.”
Media contact:
Celine Zadorsky
Senior Media Relations Consultant
London Health Sciences Centre
226-927-2309
media@lhsc.on.ca
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