Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital was looking a little less like a
hospital Wednesday after renovations to the palliative-care unit
came to an end.
The five year, $1.6-million renovation was meant to help
patients who had to spend their last days at the hospital feel more
at home. Jean Bartkowiak, chief executive, said the idea came from
a recognition that the patients' environment is as important as the
care they receive.
"The rooms look even more like home environments, so it's not as
institutional as it was," he said. "At the moment, in their health
condition, it requires a lot of compas-sion and respect so we
thought the environment was also part of the kind of care we are
known for offering."
The new environment is more than a fresh coat of paint and some
wallpaper. The renovations provided three "family rooms" outfitted
with flat screen TVs, DVD players, computers with Internet access
and sleek leather couches. The rooms also have kitchenettes and
dining room tables so if the patients get tired of hospital food
they can have their families over for a home-cooked meal. There's
even room for the hospital bed next to the dinner table.
Another room is outfitted with children's toys and a third is
stocked with reading materials.
Every one of the unit's 36 rooms got a brand new leather
La-Z-Boy armchair, empty frames that patients can slip their own
pictures in, and wall lamps complete with lampshades.
Debbie Gravelle, the director of palliative care, said the new
lamps are better than the harsh lights usually found in hospitals,
even if they make her job harder.
"As a nurse it will drive me nuts sometimes, because I can't
see," she said. "But I'll bring a flashlight if I need to."
But not all the additions were purely esthetic. The ward now
boasts softer floors to cushion patients if they fall, harnesses to
lower patients into specially built bath tubs, and showers that are
wheelchair-accessible.
But Lee Martin, the general man-ager of Randall's, the home
decorating centre that donated design expertise as well as paint
and fabrics, said the esthetics also contribute to a person's
well-being.
"I think more and more people are realizing that decor has an
impact on people's mental state, or psychology," he said.
Jim Wellman, whose wife spent four months at Élisabeth Bruyère's
palliative care ward before she died last September, couldn't agree
more.
He says the pictures that now decorate the walls, the patterns
imprinted on the ceilings, and all the paint, wallpaper, curtains
and furniture keep patients from dwelling on the reason they're in
that ward in the first place.
"What have you got to think about? Dying?" he said.
"Makes you think about other things."