YEAR IN REVIEW
CORNERSTONE BOARD
Stories from 2018 A3
December meeting report A6
Issue 35
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
www.estevanmercury.ca
Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240
Record number of hampers delivered By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
The Community Hamper Association was able to deliver a record number of hampers this year, thanks to the support shown by the community. A total of 304 hampers were delivered to recipients from Dec. 21-23. Char Seeman, the co-chair of the hamper association along with Heather Woodhouse, said they received about 320 applications this year. A few were later withdrawn. “We did have people who initially accepted, and then received Christmas bonuses, or whatever, that they hadn’t expected, and they turned down the hampers,” said Seeman. One or two people might withdraw their hamper request each year, or ask not to receive one, so to have 16 decide they don’t need a hamper is a very high number. “This year we’ve had more people say give it to someone else who needs it more,” said Seeman. That came as quite a
surprise.” The demand for hampers didn’t come as a surprise. The association keeps in contact with the Salvation Army throughout the year, and so they knew they were going to have to fill additional hampers. The previous record was around 270 hampers, which was set last year. Hampers were already assembled when they were picked up from the Southern Plains Co-op last week. The co-op supplies boxes, and puts together hampers on own their time, since the hamper association doesn’t have the manpower to fill hampers on their own. The only cost for the association is for the food itself. “Either way, if we did it ourselves, or if they do it, it costs the same amount of money,” said Seeman. She estimates the co-op filled 95 per cent of the hampers. The remaining five per cent are taken care of donors who want to fill the hampers themselves. The hampers have been
uniformed in recent years, with contents change for the different sizes. The items in a small hamper are the same, just like the items for a large hamper are the same. Many of the hampers are taken care of by companies, churches, organization or even individuals who call to say they want to take care of a hamper. “They give us money, a nd say ‘I want to supply a medium hamper,’ and they ask how much is it, and we tell them how much a medium hamper is, approximately, and they give us the money for it. We have lots of people who do that.” Other hampers are filled when people dropping off donations through the Angel Tree project or at other sites. The Community Hamper Association is also tasked with filling a lot of the hampers. The hamper association also takes care of a lot of hampers on their own, through the support of donations and the different partners for the project.
From left, Jolie Bayda, Shelley Dayman and Char Seeman were pleased with the support shown for the Community Hamper Association this year. Missing is Heather Woodhouse. File photo “Every group is from money they have raised throughout the year, because it’s all non-profit groups that do it.” People are thrilled and
relieved when the hampers arrive, she said, because it allows them to have a good meal on Christmas day. The hamper association will get a break after Christ-
mas, and then pay the bills for this year’s campaign. They will continue to be in communication with the Salvation Army, and then they’ll start holding meetings again in August.
Renovations progressing at St. Joe’s By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
The renovations that have been taking place at St. Joseph’s Hospital are nearing completion. The hospital has been working on the upgrades for the past few months. Hospital CEO Greg Hoffort said it’s been 28 years since the hospital opened, and they thought it was time to upgrade the high-traffic front entrance area. “It hadn’t been touched in the 28 years, so it certainly needed a cosmetic upgrade, so with that in mind, we started looking at patient flow, visitor flow and staff flow, and determined we could make some really marked improvement in the area and create a more secure environment,” said Hoffort. Not only will that security be there when staff is present, but when the hospital closes at 11 p.m. The hospital now has two main reception desks, which are side-by-side, instead of one. That will be the biggest upgrade that people will notice. “Before we had 20 or more feet of area that a visitor or a staff member or a patient or anyone can walk up
to, and they’d want be seen anywhere … so it was quite an onerous task for the staff. “Now the flow is improved as such that everyone comes to where the staff is, and so when you come in the flow is better to the staff and then to the emergency ward beyond that,” said Hoffort. The two reception desks will be the biggest difference the public notices. Hoffort believes the hospital has successfully modernized and enclosed the front registration area of the hospital. “S o when a patient comes to our hospital, the front registration desk is the first stop, whether they’re looking for information, whether they’re seeing the emergency room, whether they ’re coming to visit a patient, or any one of a number of reasons, it’s the first stop and at times the nerve centre of the hospital,” said Hoffort. There are some final touch-ups that need to be completed, such as relocating monitors to make it more convenient for the staff. To the public, it should look complete. “ We hand led … the majority of it as an internal
The front entrance area of St. Joseph’s Hospital is newly renovated. The changes are expected to improve the flow of patients.
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nicer looking and a lot more comfortable, and roomy chairs for the patient as well,” said Hoffort. Renovations are also taking place to the emergency room at the hospital. The hospital is restructuring the main four treatment bays in the emergency ward, and they’re testing out some layouts to see which is the most effective, with some temporary walls. “The goal of that is to maintain or improve patient
project, with our own staff, so in the next couple of weeks, hopefully we’ll wrap it up,” said Hoffort. Hoffort also pointed out that the hospital received a donation from the Rotary Club of Estevan for all new chairs for the seating area in the front entrance of the waiting room, and the chairs will be also be a big upgrade. “For the wait between the registration and seeing the emergency room, it’s a lot
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flow, but also to improve confidentially when a patient is being treated,” said Hoffort. “Right now, our treatment bays, the four main treatment bays have curtains in between them, so the noticeable change will be walls in between the patients.” It will also create an improved ability to focus with noise reduction for the caregivers. “If you’ve ever been in our emergency room, you’ve likely
been treated in one of our four bays,” said Hoffort. “Three of them are only separated with a curtain. That’s a little bit troublesome for us, in that patients in bays next to each other might be able to hear things.” The tests of the different layouts of the emergency room are expected to be completed in the next few weeks, and then the solid walls will be installed. He hopes the work can be completed in early February.
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