Being Alive

Artwork and poetry competition winners announced

Bermuda Hospitals Board and Friends of Hospice announce the winners of the Being Alive artwork and poetry competition. The competition, open to the public at large, is part of celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of Agape House, Bermuda’s only palliative care hospice.

Participants submitted their original works of art and poetry/prose on the theme Being Alive. In total, 9 works of art and 11 poems were submitted. Three judges met and decided on winners in each of the two categories. Judges of the artwork were: Danjou Anderson, Gallery Director of Windjammer3 Gallery; Nzingha Ming, Gallery Director of Bermuda Society of Arts and Elise Outerbridge, Curator and Director of Collections for Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Local poets Nick Hutchings, Stephan Johnstone and Anna Nowak judged the poetry entries.

Winning entries will be hung in Agape House.

In the artwork section Alan C Smith won first place with his digital image “Trees”, Nicky Gurrett received second place with her vibrant oil on canvas “Movement galore” and Shereet Fern was awarded 3rd place for her mixed media submission “Beach Combing”.

The winning poem was “Finding the Sun” by Kelly Exell. “Seemingly harmless” by Donna-Marie Bell came second while” My journey with Cancer” by Millie Dyer placed third.

Honorable mentions in the poetry category were:
“Alive” by Deborah Lombardo
“New Nows” by Alan C Smith
“The Splendor of You” by Kenisha N Dill

“Friends of Hospice appreciate the time and effort participants in this competition took to create their pieces of art,” said the charity’s Executive Director Cathy Belvedere.

“We hope that all the works help our residents, their families and the wider community to appreciate life more, the importance of being in the here and now and living fully, even where a terminal condition has been diagnosed,” she added.

“We applaud the work of Friends of Hospice in supporting Agape House and congratulate the winners and all the participants in the Being Alive contest,” said BHB President and CEO Venetta Symonds.” We are pleased to provide the public with palliative care in the hospice setting and know that these entries will add to the warm loving feeling residents and their families experience at Agape House.”

At Agape House every patient is treated with the utmost respect and encouraged to live life to the fullest. Staff are inspired, and try in turn to inspire patients, to follow the ideal of Dame Cecily Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement who said: ““You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life.”

General Wing Lobby Doors Closed on Thursday 29 September

BHB is installing new front doors in the General Wing lobby (where the Pink Café is located) of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Access to the General Wing lobby through these doors will be impacted on Thursday 29 September. On this day, people are asked to enter and leave the building either through the old Emergency Entrance (on the Berry Hill Road side), the healing garden (to the side of the new Acute Care Wing), through the Continuing Care Unit entrance or the main ACW lobby on Point Finger Road.

END OF FISCAL YEAR (2015/16) UPDATE

New strategy aims to deliver exceptional care, through strong partnerships and a healthy community.

Bermuda Hospitals Board today provides the latest update on its activities and releases end of year unaudited financial statements for 2015/16.

Highlights for the fiscal year 2015/16 include:
• Completion of a six month strategic planning process for the entire BHB that received stakeholder input from 300 staff and 50 external stakeholders. Major initiatives across medical and mental health fields have been identified along with a corporate action plan.

• Three years of concerted efforts to become more efficient have made the following possible:
 – No (0%) fee rise for KEMH in 2016/17 (vs 1% in 2015/16 and 1% in 2014/15)
 – Costs associated with the new Acute Care Wing fully were fully absorbed for the first full fiscal year of payments (payments started in June 2014)
 – BHB is in a more stable financial position to invest in its own infrastructure and services, and work in partnership with others to improve community health

BHB Chairman, Mr Peter Everson, comments: “For some time now, BHB has been working hard to manage very high capacity in both the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute. For patients at KEMH, this has caused a number of challenges, including longer waits than usual for admission to a bed from, for example, the Emergency or Surgery Department. We recognise that the wait for a bed is very frustrating. At MWI, staff members are under increasing pressure as numbers of people seeking help continues to rise, including seniors who have dementia-related disorders.

“An immense amount of work is carried out every day and night to keep services running. I would like to thank all staff who are part of this 24/7 process of discharge and admission, caring, treatment and support. But the pressure on staff is not sustainable, nor is the patience of our community.

“At the heart of the increase in use of our services is the aging and increasingly ill population we care for, individuals choosing to use Emergency rather than their doctors in the community, vulnerable groups whose medical and mental health chronic conditions are not managed optimally, and the shortage of appropriate services for our seniors, especially those with dementia-related disorders. This rise in service demand pressures BHB to increase capacity and drives up costs despite fee rises being well below inflation for many years.”

“With this in mind, BHB completed a strategic planning process that embraced internal and external stakeholder feedback from 350 individuals earlier this year. Summed up in the new vision: Exceptional Care. Strong Partnerships. Healthy Community, the strategy seeks to set the direction to address key concerns around quality and health.

“Key projects include improving patient flow through and between BHB, MWI and the community, working collaboratively to increase long term care placement availability in Bermuda, helping vulnerable groups improve and manage their chronic diseases, and strengthening relationships and partnerships with community providers and overseas hospitals to benefit access to quality care.”

“Furthermore we are using this strategy to address a number of critical issues impacting patient experience. From reducing delays as patients move through and out of the hospital, which will help reduce Emergency wait times, to dealing with unexpected issues that arise where the new strategy requires us to put patients first.

“Examples of unexpected issues include improving diagnostic imaging reporting times. We had noticed our turnaround times had increased over the summer and this has triggered an internal review to look at all the processes, staffing and current systems that are involved in getting a diagnostic imaging test read, reported on and to physicians and patients. Right now, we have adapted processes, and are increasing administrative and systems support to address the increase in turnaround time. But in keeping true to our new strategy of being patient-focused, the review has highlighted a number of longer term improvements that can be made that will give patients access to their own results as they are posted.

“There are no quick fixes to improving community health and hospital services, and BHB recognises it is part of a healthcare system that requires the involvement of providers, organisations and the community. A new, more collaborative way of working is required. The issues we face are complex and require us to listen as much as we talk, and to collaborate and cooperate with other providers as much as we compete.

BHB’s strategic documents can be accessed here [insert link]. A community event is planned for late in the Fall.

Mr Everson ends: “While the release of our 2011-12 Annual Report in July was a positive step forward to getting our financial statements up to date, we will continue to share our unaudited results on a six monthly basis. The end of year update is included in this release.

Attachment 1: Unaudited 2015/16 Financials

Link 1: Strategic Plan 2016-21

Urgent Care Centre Closure this Weekend

Bermuda Hospitals Board today advises that it will have to close the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre this weekend (Saturday 17 and Sunday 18) as it is unable to cover an unplanned absence of the Emergency physician scheduled to work at the facility.

Dr Edward Schultz, Chief of Emergency and Hyperbaric Medicine, comments: “BHB is sorry that we are unable to find an Emergency physician to cover an unplanned absence by the scheduled physician at the UCC. We will open again on Monday 19 September 2016 at the usual time 4pm. Over the weekend, we ask that people with emergency medical needs go directly to the Emergency Department at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, which remains fully staffed and operational.”

BHB Update on the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre

Bermuda Hospitals Board today provides an update on maintenance plans for the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre (UCC).

BHB’s strategy seeks to improve quality of care, strengthen partnerships and support a healthy community. As part of this strategy, BHB will close the UCC for two weeks later this Fall to undertake maintenance work at in order to sustain the facility for urgent care, as a disaster hub in the event of an East End crisis such as a crash at the airport, and as an available medical facility for St David’s and St George’s residents when the causeway is closed.

Dr Edward Schultz, Chief of Emergency and Hyperbaric Medicine notes: “The need for the UCC has never been greater to manage the increasingly sick and senior population in Bermuda. Over the last five years, numbers at both the UCC and Emergency Department have trended slightly down (7.7%) from 39,564 to 36,518. Very likely, this relates to the decrease in local population numbers. However, the complexity we see in the Emergency Department is increasing. This relates to our ageing population, as our seniors can have multiple issues and medications, and the rising incidence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. Diabetes can cause or complicate a patient’s medical condition and increase the likelihood of hospitalisation. At any time about 40% of people in hospital have diabetes. In Emergency, this complexity means each patient takes longer to triage, test, diagnose and treat and the numbers of admissions from Emergency into hospital is much higher. This has led to KEMH often working at capacity, and people are left waiting for an inpatient bed in Emergency. This, in turn, reduces the clinical space for incoming Emergency patients, who then also wait for longer. The need for the UCC has never been higher to relieve the pressure in the hospital Emergency department, and enable people who have urgent care needs in evenings and weekends to be seen relatively quickly.”

Mr Scott Pearman, Chief Operating Officer for KEMH and the UCC, adds: “The UCC facility is now seven years old and requires maintenance to refresh aging systems and prepare the facility for the projected influx of visitors due to the Americas Cup events scheduled in 2017. The maintenance work is planned for later in the fall when it will temporarily close for a couple of weeks so that the floor can be replaced, repairs can be made to the air conditioning system, and a number of less visible maintenance issues can be addressed. Numbers at the UCC tend to dip slightly towards late fall and the risks of hurricanes decline in October and November. We do not have a set date yet, as we will monitor storm activity and usage, but wanted to ensure people know about our plans. The UCC is strategically important to the island, and we will use a public process to identify potential partners that are interested in collaborating with the BHB to make use of the facility at times when the urgent care service is not in operation.”

Attachment 1: Urgent Care Centre and Emergency Department Usage

Outpatient clinics at KEMH have moved

Bermuda Hospitals Board advises the public that its outpatient clinics which operated from the ground floor of the General Wing at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital(KEMH) have moved to 2nd floor of the Acute Care Wing.

The clinics that have moved are: Infectious Diseases with Dr Michael Ashton, Nephrology with Dr Raphael Loutoby and Pain Management with Dr Annie Pinto and Dr Charles Swart.

The visitor parking lot on Point Finger Road close to the Emergency Department will be more convenient for patients using the services.

Within the hospital clear signage is posted directing the public to the new location. Patients have been advised of the move.

Bermuda Hospitals Board adds General Consent form

Consent to Your Care

Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) is pleased to announce the introduction of the General Consent form for patients. The form is an addition to the list of required consents currently in place for patients.

Traditionally it has been assumed that anyone attending the hospital wanted treatment. Introduction of the General Consent form now formalises this relationship. The General Consent form covers routine medical care and non-invasive procedures. Simply put it is your consent to care. It is worth noting that BHB has always required consent forms for invasive procedures such as surgery and blood transfusions, and that use of these will continue.

BHB CEO Venetta Symonds explained the need for the form: “In our mission to provide exceptional care and a healthy community, we want to ensure that you are informed about your needs and that we have your permission to provide the best options available for health care diagnostics and intervention at the earliest possible opportunity.

“In fulfilling this mission we also need to know that every person that has been afforded our medical services or treatment, has given their permission to receive it and been apprised of their right to refuse it.

“We understand that no one wants to feel forced into health care decisions especially as these are often needed at times when we are most fragile and vulnerable.”

The General Consent form will become mandatory for all BHB patients over time. At present patients of the Diabetes Respiratory Endocrine and Metabolism (DREAM) Centre, Fracture Clinic and Allied Health Services are asked to complete it if they want to obtain treatment or services.

Members of the public do not have to sign the form but failure to sign it means no treatment or services will be given.

Processes are in place for those who are vulnerable and unable to sign on their own behalf. These processes will be extended and used with this additional consent form.

Members of the public can visit the BHB website www.bdahospitaldev.wpengine.com to review the form as well as frequently asked questions and answers (click the links below). Anyone requiring more information about the form can contact BHB Public Relations Senior Specialist Cathy Stovell or email public.relations@bhb.bm

• BHB General Consent Form
• BHB General Consent Factsheet

New hours at Craig Appin House reception

Bermuda Hospitals Board is advising the public that as of Monday 7 August the reception desk at its Craig Appin House location will open at 9am and close at 4:30pm. Craig Appin House is at 8 Wesley Street, Hamilton.
The new hours will be in place until further notice.

Bermuda Hospitals Board & Bermuda Road Safety Council urge the public to think Road Safety

On the eve of our annual Cup Match holiday weekend, the Bermuda Hospitals Board and the Bermuda Road Safety Council are advising the public to drive safely and responsibly.

“We urge the public not to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” said Bermuda Road Safety Council Chairperson Erica Rance Mills. “Please remember you are also at risk of causing an accident if you are tired or distracted.”

“Our statistics from the first of the year up to 12 July revealed that 837 victims required attention in the Emergency Department as a result of road traffic accidents,” said BHB Chief of Emergency Services Dr Edward Schultz. “Eighty-two of those victims had to be admitted to the Acute Care Wing for treatment and 16 had to be admitted to our Intensive Care Unit.”

To date, seven people have died from injuries sustained in road traffic accidents.

“We would like everyone to have a festive but safe holiday,” said BHB Chief Operating Officer Scott Pearman. “Observing the rules of the road and driving with focused attention on the road will go a long way to keeping you and everyone around you safe and out of the Emergency Department.”

Call for O Negative Blood Donations

Bermuda Hospitals Board today is asking for O negative blood donors to donate on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Cup Match, to ensure blood supplies are available over the long holiday weekend. Donors are asked to call 236-5067 to make an appointment.

Dr Eyitayo Fakunle, Consultant Haematologist, comments: “We have a short donation week due to the Cup Match Holiday and a lot of people who regularly donate are on vacation. We need to ensure all types of blood are available over the long weekend, but we are in special need of O negative blood. While we hope everyone enjoys the four days safely, accidents can happen, and if your life needs saving by a blood donation we must ensure blood supplies are available. If you don’t know your blood type, but are willing to donate, please call the Blood Donor Centre as your blood donation is always welcome and new blood donors are always needed.”