Inside the Emergency Department

October 3, 2022

Andrea Budnick has been a nurse on the Specialty Resource Team in St. Boniface Hospital’s Emergency Department for the last three years.

“I’m proud to work at St. Boniface, and of the care my colleagues and I provide, but if you’ve ever been to our Emergency Department, you know that there are limitations with the current space,” she said.

There is hope on the horizon, however.

The addition of dedicated family consultation and bereavement rooms, and individual standard exam rooms outfitted with sliding glass doors, will offer patients and families much-needed privacy and quiet.

Community donors are at the heart of a major redevelopment and expansion project that is underway. It will transform the Emergency Department into a care setting where design and location maximize efficiency, leading to better and more timely care.

Construction work along Taché Avenue is underway. The redeveloped and expanded department’s new space will open in 2025. By then, the Emergency Department will be more than three times its current size.

The Emergency Department sees about 47,000 emergency patient visits each year, or around 130 patients per day, and the numbers are growing.

“We know it is important for our patients to have the support of family and loved ones in person, and the capacity to accommodate everyone’s support people does get stretched. In only a few years, the waiting room will be five times larger,” Budnick explained. “Think of the difference a larger waiting room will make to our patients and their families.”

“In nursing school, you’re told to always make sure the curtain is closed and you’re talking to the patient in a soft tone of voice. But I can tell you, patients often ask me, ‘What’s happening next door? I heard you talking about this and that,’” she said.

Patients come to St. Boniface at some of the most difficult moments of their lives, and these moments can be all the more difficult if only a curtain separates them from the next patient.

“For people whose family member is dying, or after someone has passed away, we’re often putting them into any quieter area we can find, or into one of the mental health rooms. Whatever our patients are dealing with, the peace and security of a private room will improve our ability to provide compassionate care,” she said.

The Hospital is adding a large end-of-life treatment room to the department, to allow family and loved ones to gather, as well as a separate bereavement room, offering a private space to make decisions or say goodbye.

Meanwhile, something as simple as a door that closes will make a big difference to those experiencing difficult times.

“Believe it or not, we only have about five doors that close in the entire department,” Budnick said. “But that number is about to rise to more than 40. In the new Emergency Department, we will have new individual standard exam rooms outfitted with sliding glass doors to offer privacy.”

The size and location of the old ambulance garage in the existing Emergency Department used to impact how nurses like Budnick reached patients, and how patients accessed the department. It could get crowded.

“St. Boniface Hospital Foundation donors like you will be at the heart of our transformed Emergency Department, and I think that’s exciting,” said Emergency Department nurse Andrea Budnick.

By creating separate entranceways for ambulances and patients being dropped off in the new department, the Hospital will ensure those who need to get inside as soon as possible are able to do so.

The new Emergency Department will have dedicated indoor ambulance bays and underground parking for up to ten ambulances, plus up to eight more emergency vehicles such as police cruisers. These bays will have direct, high-speed elevator access to both the Critical Care Resuscitation Zone in the Emergency Department and the Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab.

“At St. Boniface, we’re big on making sure we safely discharge patients. The reason I’ve stayed at St. Boniface Hospital is because of the staff I work with and our compassion level. We have that extra level of niceness. People feel that they’re well looked after. I can’t wait to show everyone what we can do in the new Emergency Department.”


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