Peace Arch Hospital
For more than 800 babies born annually at Peace Arch Hospital, infant resuscitation warming beds are critical for regulating body temperature and providing CPR or medications immediately after birth.
With the recent expansion of the hospital’s maternity unit, Peace Arch needed eight of the specialized beds—one for each room—to avoid transporting babies around for emergency medical treatment. A $20,000 grant from the Envision Financial Community Endowment, housed with the First West Foundation, has now helped fund one of the resuscitation beds.
According to Selina Yano, Senior Development Officer at the Peace Arch Hospital Foundation, updating the maternity ward to ensure each labour and delivery suite had its own state-of-the-art equipment was critical. “It enables Peace Arch to continue providing its patients with current best practices in maternal care—especially in the event of an emergency, when doctors need to access equipment at a moment’s notice.”
Expanding Peace Arch’s maternity ward was the third of five projects in the Foundation’s $32 Million Partners in Caring campaign. With an influx of young families in the South Surrey/White Rock area over the past decade and only three delivery rooms, expectant mothers sometimes had to travel as far away as Richmond and Burnaby to deliver their babies. The new maternity unit, which was completed in December 2010, now has 50 per cent more space and can accommodate up to eight mothers at once.
“The infant resuscitation warming bed is just one of the many state-of-the-art technologies helping to bring Peace Arch’s maternity program into the 21st century,” explains Seline Kutan, executive director of the First West Foundation. “Families can feel rest-assured that they’re receiving the best possible care right here in their community, and the Foundation is pleased to be able to make that possible.”
Peace Arch Hospital and Community Health Foundation raises funds and awareness to enhance health and wellness in the White Rock/South Surrey area. Annually, Peace Arch Hospital experiences 39,000 emergency room visits, admits over 8,000 patients, performs 4,900 surgeries and 81,500 medical imaging exams, and delivers more than 800 babies. For more information visitwww.peacearchhospital.com.
