Medicine Hat Regional Hospital
| Medicine Hat Regional Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Alberta Health Services | |
Medicine Hat Regional Hospital visitor's entrance
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 Location in Alberta
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| Geography | |
| Location | Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada |
| Coordinates | 50°02′30″N 110°40′39″W / 50.04167°N 110.67750°WCoordinates: 50°02′30″N 110°40′39″W / 50.04167°N 110.67750°W |
| Organization | |
| Care system | Medicare |
| Hospital type | General, Teaching |
| Affiliated university | Faculty of Medicine of the University of Calgary |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Yes |
| Beds | 325 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1889 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/facilities.asp?pid=facility&rid=1000474 |
Medicine Hat Regional Hospital is a medical facility located in Medicine Hat, Alberta serving a catchment area of 117,000. It has 325 beds.
Alberta Health Services is responsible for the operations of the hospital.
In the 2011/2012 year the emergency department assessed 31,337 patients. This equates to a rate of 246.3 per thousand of population in comparison with the Alberta average of 267.5 per thousand. The inpatient separation rate is 114 per thousand population compared to the Alberta average of 88.3, the most common admitting diagnosis being ischemic heart disease, markedly higher than the overall Alberta population average.
The hospital serves as a training center for multiple professions. Students from Medicine Hat College include the areas of nursing and EMS. The University of Calgary trains residents in their Rural Alberta South family medicine program and rotate medical students on elective. The Canadian Forces Medical Service in Suffield also rotates medics through the emergency department. In October 2012 the University of Alberta began rotating pharmacy students through Medicine Hat as part of an 8-week placement program.
The hospital was founded in 1889 and had its formal opening June 4, 1890. It was created to service Saskatchewan, Assiniboia, Alberta and Athabasca and was the first civilian hospital in Alberta. This was partially in response to the 1888 typhoid fever epidemic in which there was no institution available to tend to the sick and also as a means of promoting the community. Initial funding was provided through government, individuals and corporations including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Canadian Agricultural, Coal and Colonization Company and twelve lots from the Northwest Land Company. A new wing was added to the hospital in 1907.
The construction of a maternity hospital was initially suggested in 1892 as a means to move deliveries outside of the general hospital. 50 yards north of the general hospital, construction of the Lady Aberdeen Maternity Hospital was started on May 25, 1894 and finished August 19, 1895. A second story was added in 1904. An annex was later attached in 1945.
In that same time period that the maternity hospital was constructed, the Training School for Nurses was also established. The nurses initially stayed within the general hospital, however this ultimately resulted in a shortage of beds. As a result, the Victoria Nurses' Residence was created with fundraising by the newly formed Woman's Hospital Aid Society (WHAS). Construction started April 1904 and finished in December with a formal opening in 1905. The residence was enlarged in 1912, doubling its size.
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Wikipedia