New discharge lounge helping patient flow at Fredericton’s Chalmers hospital, as major renovation enters year eight

Fredericton’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital has been a labour of love for Louise Corey.

“I met my husband here, had my children here, its part of my life,” she said.

She was a nurse at the hospital for 33 years, wheeling in a patient on the day the Chalmers first opened its doors in 1976.

Now, she’s president of the Chalmers’ Hospital Auxiliary team – which runs the coffee and gift shop, and a hair salon – volunteering and collecting money for projects within the hospital.

Recently, the auxiliary gave $10,000 toward the creation of discharge lounge, meant to transition patients to a comfortable area while they wait for a final treatment or their loved one to pick them up – while freeing up a much needed bed.

“This was set up with that intention that it would be a short stay for a few hours, go home from there,” Corey explained. “Sometimes it's just waiting to have a cast off or have an IV medication given for the last dose.”

It seems simple but the lounge - which opened two weeks ago – has already freed up about 24 cumulative hours in bed space.

“That allows our staff to start cleaning the bed that they were in. It allows our staff to start to look at, you know, who's the next patient to go into it. How do we get them up here more quickly from, let's say, the emergency department?” said David Arbeau, executive director of the Fredericton-area for Horizon Health.

It stems from research Horizon did, mostly in speaking with hospitals in the United States – about how to improve the patient experience while also increasing patient flow.

Arbeau believes the lounge is a small piece to a large puzzle that’s underway at the Chalmers.

Chalmers in year eight of major renovation project

“I do think once our building has undergone its entire renovation and refurbishment, I just feel like there just be so many positives to that, including, patient flow, but also just feeling like we're, you know, we're moving people to the right location for care,” he said.

The hospital is in year eight of that major renovation project.

There are several new wings and additions, including a state-of-the-area intensive care unit, which was completed in 2023.

Maternal newborn services, an ambulatory procedures unit, a surgical day care unit, a new surgical suite and an updated area for blood and specimen collection are also on the list of additions and updates.

Planning began in 2007, with construction starting in 2016. Arbeau said the entire project – with all the movement and domino effects that come with it – should be fully completed in 2029.

It’s all taken so long, the area MLA and Green Party leader says – what wasn’t a problem then, is a problem now.

“I've toured twice around the renovations and the additions and, the last time, when they opened the new and incredible ICU, when that was opened, a number of the staff was telling me they really needed to get the ER renovated and expanded to deal with the demand,” said David Coon.

An overcrowded emergency department and shortage of beds have plagued the hospital in recent months.

Arbeau confirmed the ER is not on the major renovation list. While he’s not ruling out the need in the future, he says they have done several smaller projects within the space to help with the increased demand the department is experiencing.

“We've actually relocated some services from level one to other parts of the hospital to give the ER a bit more footprint, just to breathe a little bit,” he said. “Some work is undergoing right now actually with pass throughs and areas that we can make more accessible for the staff to work around in the ER.”

He said they’re refurbishing some nursing stations, adding paint and flooring, upgrading computers and adding storage space, in the hopes staff will experience a difference in their workflow.

“So the short answer is there's no major renovation planned for the ER but there certainly is a lot of work Horizon's undertaken to try to mitigate some short term strategies and plan for what would be probably a longer term vision in terms of what RDR should look like or,” he said.

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