BOYLE — As the three-year anniversary of the Boyle Healthcare Centre’s rolling nightly closures approaches, so does the rural emergency room’s 24/7 reopening, say community officials.
“Everything’s in line, it’s just the timing,” said Boyle Mayor Colin Derko. “The only reason it’s not open already is because we need to go through the process of opening.”
Derko said weekly meetings and discussions with Alberta Health Services (AHS) are ongoing, and hospital staff and AHS departments are moving through their due diligence checklists before greenlighting the facility’s return to full-time operation.
“The physicians, RN’s, LPN’s, all of the staffing, it seems they’ve got a handle on that,” said Derko. “It’s now all the other processes that they’re able to start on because of that.”
The first phase of reopening is tentatively expected in late summer or early fall this year, though no official timeline has been released. Derko said amongst the many moving parts to get all aspects of the hospital up and running again, contractual obligations with staff unions have the biggest influence on timing.
Staffing has been a frequent barrier to the re-opening throughout the nearly three years of closures; a shortage of RN’s have prevented the return to full-time operation for the last year, and despite being first on the list to receive Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN), the program’s payoff was different than was hoped for.
“We had big expectations, or more optimistic expectations of the international nursing program that took a little longer to come to fruition for us. Being first on the list was both a blessing and a curse.”
Despite numerous attempts, the IEN program didn’t add any more staff to the hospital’s roster. But another new pilot project first launched in rural hospitals at the beginning of the year will be implemented in the village facility to side-step another ongoing staffing issue.
Derko said the Virtual Emergency Physician pilot program is set to launch in Boyle after being tested in hospitals in Elk Point, Hinton, Lac La Biche, and Beaverlodge to allow on-site staff to address non-life-threatening issues using the remote aid and advice of doctors.
Having the pilot project available for staff in Boyle is a major factor in setting the renewed hopes for reopening apart from the false starts seen over the past three years.
“You can’t be there without a doctor, you can’t be there without proper nursing coverage,” said Derko. “Now that’s in place and now it’s the, I don’t want to say smaller things, but the more plentiful things. The kitchen equipment, the equipment in rooms.”
Though the timeline for reopening is out of his and other village councillors hands, Derko said community members and locals can expect more concrete information within the next month.
“They don’t want to give a date simply because they want to make sure,” said Derko. “But they said, ‘It’ll be very soon that we’ll be able to speak to actual dates.’”
