By Jean Pierre Brisma, M.D., Emergency Department Chief, Hopitâl Sacré Coeur
Hopitâl Sacré Coeur is now a reference hospital, not only for the North but also for many nearby regions. Before the construction of the new emergency room, the hospital had only a small emergency room with 4 beds, little space for emergency supplies, and was restricted in its ability to deal with many trauma patients, especially when we had to deal with the injured from massive accidents.
As a result of these limitations, administration, with the enthusiastic support of generous donors, took steps to build a new emergency room, worthy of Hopitâl Sacré Coeur.
Thanks to this new building, we have one of the best emergency department services in the country. The facility is very spacious, equipped with a modern oxygenation system, hardware devices such as a defibrillator, CPAP, mechanical ventilation, echocardiography, portable radiology, monitors, ECG and the list goes on. All of this equipment makes diagnosis faster and supports more comprehensive and advanced patient care.
This new construction has increased the number of observation beds to ten, with the possibility to add even more beds. There is ample space now to store equipment and supplies.
The number of patients who come to the emergency room every day has increased exponentially. After only 8 months of operation, the number of patients treated in the emergency room has increased by over 30% compared to the same period in 2014.
Hopitâl Sacré Coeur’s emergency department has become a center of reference in support of severely ill and injured patients and mass trauma events, such as major highway accidents. In addition, our emergency department now handles referrals and transfers from other hospitals in the region who are not as well equipped or staffed to handle trauma and severe cases.
The emergency department team is well coordinated with a family doctor or a general practitioner in medicine available to ensure continued patient care and a host of onsite specialists who are able to assess cases on an as needed basis.
This is our hospital: a national reference.
