Ready to go at last!
After a eight-week shutdown due to a fire in July, the Mary Alice 1 (MA-1) Emergency Eye Clinic at our Hotel Dieu Hospital site reopened today looking brighter than ever. Even better, it weathered the temporary closure without cancelling a single patient.
Fire damage made it impossible to use the seven MA-1 exam lanes, which meant ramping up volumes—50 to 100 extra patients daily—in two already-busy clinics on Level 6 at the HDH site.
“Ophthalmology Program staff managed everything with grace and professionalism,” says Cindy Bolton, Program Operational Director, “and because of their hard work we didn’t have to cancel a single patient over the two months.”
Bringing the clinic back online involved completely tearing down, rebuilding and re-equipping the one exam lane where the fire started. Water damage throughout the entire space called for weeks of construction and remediation work that included new flooring, drywall and painting.
You can check out the damage, renovation and results on our KHSC Facebook page.
A true team effort
“This was truly a team effort, with plenty of hard work, assistance and cooperation,” says Bolton.
”As a program we thank Phil Kent and all the members of the Code Red remediation team from Biomedical Engineering, Environmental Services, Facilities, Infection Control, Information Management, Maintenance, Occupational Health, Risk Management and Security for their tireless work to get us back into MA 1 on schedule.
“We’re grateful, too, for our Information Desk Volunteers who patiently redirected patients every day of the eight-week renovation.”
Along with Dr. Martin ten Hove, Program Medical Director and Department Head for Ophthalmology, and Program Manager Marie Pitcher, Cindy also applauded the entire Ophthalmology clinical team for their success in rescheduling and supporting patients, especially on some pretty hot summer days when the Level 6 clinics were heavily booked.
“It’s a testament to their commitment and sense of mission that no patient missed an appointment and no one complained,” she says.
“The team is very committed to a positive patient experience and couples that with a very can-do attitude. That really shone through in these last two months.”
Gallery
Mission accomplished! At a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 24, members of the Ophthalmology team celebrated the return of the Mary Alice clinic to full operational status.
When the extent of damage was determined on July 30, the day of the fire, the Mary Alice Emergency Eye Clinic was closed to all traffic for remediation and renovation. That meant 50 to 100 patients had to be accommodated in two other eye clinics at the HD
The fire totalled one exam room; everything in it had to be scrapped and rebuilt, and all equipment had to be replaced.
Overhead sprinklers did their job in the fire but left behind a few inches of water that meant flooring and some drywall had to be replaced in the clinic; ceiling tiles and a staff locker room one level down were also affected.
Air scrubbers and huge hoses were brought in as work got underway to dry out the clinic.
Hoses were snaking out doors and windows as the air was filtered out of the clinic space.
Infection Control Practitioner Trish Raney monitored humidity levels as the clinic space dried out.
Floors were stripped to make way for new tiling.
Here comes the shiny new flooring!
Bob Krueger, Facilities Management, installs new ceiling tiles.
Cliff Wimbush, Facilities Management, handled installation of new plumbing fixtures in the exam room that required rebuilding after the fire.
Biomedical Technologist Ken Robertson and his team acted quickly at the time of the fire (which triggered our sprinkler system) to save most equipment in the clinic from water damage. What they couldn’t save was replaced. Here, Ken installs a new comput
Information Management had to remove computers and monitors throughout the entire clinic so flooring, walls and ceilings could be remediated and repaired. Once that wrapped up, Desktop Support Technician Paul Thompson re-installed and tested all computer
Looking brighter and fresher, the renovated exam areas were ready to go by mid-September.
On the weekend prior to re-opening, Ophthalmology Technologists (l-r) Hailey Simpson, Sara Peters, Lauren Hoekstra and Ashley Alexander double check the equipment in one of the exam rooms.
Ophthalmology Technologist Ashley Alexander was pleased to re-stock an exam room as eye clinic staff geared up to re-open the Mary Alice 1 space.
To ensure all surfaces were gleaming, an Environmental Services team, including Toni Bonnet (pictured here), swept through the clinic on the weekend before opening for a final deep clean.
Ready to go at last!
