Thanks to your generosity, two very important equipment purchases have been made for the Manitoba Blue Cross Mental Health Assessment Unit at Victoria Hospital: a medical blanket warmer and a state-of-the-art portable telehealth unit.
While a blanket warmer may seem like an unusual piece of equipment to celebrate, the impact it can have is tremendous, for both patients and staff.
Generally, any time spent in a healthcare facility involves some level of worry and stress. Add in uncomfortable environmental factors like being cold, and frustration levels often rise. This can sometimes lead to behaviours that put both patients and staff at risk.
Having easy access to a blanket warmer within the unit provides a quick, non-invasive way to offer comfort, distract from negative feelings and even de-escalate anger. A staff member on the unit says “It is a good alternative to a hug.”
The other much needed piece of equipment recently funded with your support is the new portable telehealth unit. This equipment provides access to remote psychiatry consultations during night shifts when there is no psychiatrist on-site.
Before this mobile unit was obtained, patients had to be taken to another area of the hospital to access an older unit that was in dire need of repair. This makes is more difficult for both patients and staff and often caused delays.
The old unit sometimes had connection issues, and even when it did connect, sometimes the audio wouldn’t work, and staff needed to use cell phones in order for the patient to be heard.
Staff remarks: “It is very simple, no issues with connection. We just wheel it into the patient’s room, they have their consult and then we wheel it out when they were done. Very easy compared to having to use the other unit in the conference room. 10/10!”
Kurt Pay, Director of Health Services, Mental Health, Therapeutic Services, Spiritual Health & Patient Transport expresses his thanks on behalf of the patients, families, and staff that have already benefitted from these new additions. “This is a huge benefit to the team and to those receiving mental health care in the Manitoba Blue Cross Mental Health Assessment Unit.”
