KEMH creates more isolation rooms

Monday 13 April 2020: Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) today announces the addition of nine more negative pressure rooms at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH). Four additional rooms in the Emergency Department, two operating rooms, two rooms on the Post Anesthesia Care Unit and one additional room on the Dialysis Unit have been converted to negative pressure/isolation rooms.

These nine rooms are in addition to the 28 converted on the Ace Barber Unit, announced last week. (The 28 conversions brought the total negative pressure rooms on the unit to 30, i.e. every room on the unit.)

Creating negative pressure within a room results in the air being confined to that room. This greatly reduces the ability of infection to spread.

The Acute Care Wing opened in 2014 with two negative pressure rooms on each of the three wards and 15 in the Emergency Department. Patients who present or develop infectious conditions in the hospital are routinely housed in isolation rooms.

Black & McDonald, facility manager of the Acute Care Wing (ACW), were able to increase the number of negative pressure rooms through the ACW’s automated building management system.

“We are doing everything we can to help BHB prepare for this pandemic,” said the Black & McDonald Facility Manger for the Acute Care Wing, Warren Moulaison. “Our team of engineers, just like everyone at BHB, is committed to doing our best to serve our Bermuda community.”

“Increasing the number of isolation rooms in the Emergency Department will help us better stem the spread of COVID-19 within the hospital,” said BHB Chief of Emergency and Hyperbarics Chikezie Dean Okereke, MD.

“We are pleased with the progress of our pandemic plan,” said BHB CEO and President Venetta Symonds. “I thank the dedication of staff across our organisation, from the Facilities Departments who expand our negative pressure room capabilities, to our frontline clinical staff, dietary and environmental services staff, our partners in security services and our administrative staff – all of us are working to care for and keep our patients  and employees safe.”

13 April 2020 Home Page, News

Ace Barber Unit converted for pandemic

Wednesday 8 April 2020: Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) today announces that all 30 rooms of the Ace Barber Unit in the Acute Care Wing have been converted to negative pressure rooms. This upgrade dramatically decreases the possibility of infection spreading on the ward.

Creating a negative pressure within a room results in the air being confined to that room. The Acute Care Wing opened with two negative pressure rooms on each of its three units and two in the Emergency Department.

These rooms have always been used for patients with infectious conditions – patients who require isolation. They are commonly referred to as isolation rooms.

Black & McDonald, facilities managers of the Acute Care Wing, were able to increase the number of negative pressure rooms through the automated building management system.

“Staff and patient safety is our first priority, having negative pressure rooms enhances our ability to do this,” said BHB Chief of Staff Michael Richmond.  “This is one of several projects we have underway as we prepare for a possible surge in COVID-19 patients.”

 

 

8 April 2020 Home Page, News