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Parking, security improvements coming to BUH

Jun 22, 2018 | 5:00 PM

There will be parking and security improvements at the Battlefords Union Hospital starting July 3.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority advised residents to follow the new parking signage that will be posted and to take note of new security protocols for entering the hospital after regular hours.

“The improvements are the result of review, planning, and collaboration among numerous members of the BUH healthcare team and patient advisors. Patients have asked for improved parking and access,” BUH Facilities Manager Mitchel Smith said in a statement.

Parking for visitors, patients, staff, and physicians will all be seeing some improvements, and there will be a new parking spaces created in front of the hospital for priority-patient parking.

“The way we have redesigned our parking is on a patients-first model,” said Chris Etcheverry, Nurse Manager at BUH. “Those patients who need to access, for instance, emergency services or critical hospital services in a fast way will receive priority parking. That includes handicap parking as well.”

He said the hospital will also have more handicap parking spaces available.

“There is no reduced parking; it’s actually increased for the public and visitors,” Etcheverry said.

Physician and staff parking has been relocated to enable doctors to park closer to the hospital so they can respond more quickly in emergency situations, he said. The health authority is also improving some of the pedestrian walkways and access for people with mobility issues also so they can more easily access the hospital entrance. 

After-hours access to be screened

As part of the hospital’s security upgrades, people entering the hospital after regular hours will soon need to be buzzed into the building by security.

“Patients and visitors who wish to enter the Battlefords Union Hospital after 8 p.m. every day of the week will see some changes,” Etcheverry said. “Access to the hospital after 8 p.m. each night is via a controled and monitored entry point.”

People will need to press a buzzer before they will be allowed to come inside. While the outside main doors will be open, the interior main entry doors will be closed and secured.

Etcheverry said patients wanting access to the facility after hours will need to use the buzzer and a speaker system to advise the security personnel why they are there – whether to visit the emergency room or visit family or loved ones in the hospital, for example. Etcheverry said the security-monitored access was needed to ensure patients, staff, and the public in the hospital are safe.

He said there have been incidents in the past when individuals entered the hospital who should not have been there, and the new producedures will help prevent that from happening.

“The change to the after-hours access is one of our latest in a series of initiatives that have been implemented at the BUH,” Etcheverry said. “Door security systems throughout the hospital have also been upgraded, along with video and camera surveillance, both within the hospital and on the exterior of the building.”

 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

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