Renovated Urgent Care Centre welcomes patients at UBCH
Faster triage: Diana Hawkes, RN, in the UCC’s new registration area where patients will be triaged in five to eight minutes.
Five months after sealing its front doors for renovations, UBC Hospital’s Urgent Care Centre (UCC) has a new entry, waiting area and registration/triage space.But that’s not all. New workflow means better service for patients. VCH News asked Diane Wiebe, patient services manager, UCC, to explain.
How have renovations improved the Urgent Care Centre?
Diane: Overall, the space is brighter and more user-friendly with a clearly defined waiting room and registration area. Before, when patients came in, it was difficult for them to determine where they needed to go. Now, natural light floods the waiting area and reaches into the unit. The registration workspace used to be small, cluttered and cumbersome. Today it’s bright, clean and ergonomically sound.
How has patient access changed at the Urgent Care Centre?
Diane: We’ve changed our workflow to triage patients faster, by registering and triaging patients at the same time. Before, we’d register patients and, unless they were deemed to be in distress, we’d instruct them to sit in the waiting room and wait to be triaged.
Bright and welcoming: The new entry and waiting area is open and offers much more natural light than before.
What kind of cases does the Urgent Care Centre treat?
Diane: Our multi-disciplinary team treats non-life-threatening emergencies. While some patients are referred to us by their family doctor, others are self-referrals or walk-ins, and BC Ambulance Services brings lower acuity admissions. Life-threatening conditions including heart attacks and strokes, are stabilized and transferred to VGH for a higher level of care.
We serve anywhere from 30 to 65 patients per day, of which 10 to 12 per cent are pediatric cases. Our patients include local residents and visitors, UBC students, patients seeking a shorter wait time to be seen by a physician and patients seeking medical services that may require X-rays, lab work or triage to other specialties. Cases include allergic reactions, breathing problems, broken bones, cuts requiring sutures, undiagnosed fever, undiagnosed infections, IV therapy, minor burns, nose bleeds, sprains and strains.