Lakeshore General Hospital opens temporary ER amid major expansion

The Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, on Montreal’s West Island, is currently undergoing major renovations.

In the meantime, the hospital has opened a new temporary emergency room to continue its services in a modular building.

The chief of Emergency Medicine for the West Island CIUSSS, Robin Nathanson, says they were able to make the transition easily from the old ER to the new one, and they started seeing their first patients on Wednesday.

“Yesterday at 5 a.m., we closed Triage in the old emergency; we opened it up here, and it went really well, it went very smoothly. The last patients moved over before the end of the morning. It really went on without a hitch,” said Nathanson.

“A lot of work went into that, a lot of preparation, a massive team of people to ensure that everything went smoothly, and sure enough, it did.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the new temporary ER was operating at 100 per cent capacity, like most other Montreal hospitals that continue to see overcrowding.

Some say it’s important that emergency services are still available amid renovations.

“I think that’s wonderful for everybody. It should be accessible. Just the fact that already the hospitals, most hospitals, are overwhelmed, so having access is great,” said Cristina Ballerini, a visitor at the Lakeshore General Hospital.

Nathanson says the new area is structured differently, allowing staff to easily monitor their patients.

“It’s a more open area, with a better layout as you can see as you walk around. All the doors have large windows on them for the isolation rooms,” he said.

“The layout of the stretcher area is very linear, with one of the key components being direct visualization of all the patients.”

The improvements seen in the temporary ER are expected to be implemented in the new ER, once the hospital’s expansion project is complete. Construction is set to begin in 2025.

“(It’s) a better place, better layout, visualization of all our patients, really designed to not only optimize the care we can give to patients but also optimize our flow through our department so that it’s the best possible patient experience,” said Nathanson.

Aside from the ground-floor emergency room, the modular building will also include a group of family medicine doctors in collaboration with McGill University, to care for those who come to the ER with non-urgent situations.

It will also house a Rapid Access Clinic.

“The team is ecstatic and really excited to be in a new space after, I think, almost 50 years in the old space. It was certainly time for a change, and without a doubt, this space will allow us to optimize and give the best possible care we can to our patients,” said Nathanson.