General Updates and News - Page 17

Keith P. · #**321** Posted **May 17, 2009, 7:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Or some kind of pot shot at another city (Dubai, Toronto, and New York have already been insulted to date)

I think there was an Atlanta insult in there too somewhere.

Dmajackson · #**322** Posted **May 20, 2009, 11:17 AM**

Emergency treatment
New QEII centre opening in June expected to offer improvements for patients, staff
By PAT LEE Staff Reporter
Wed. May 20 - 5:47 AM

It’s shiny and new and you hope you never have to go there.

But on June 23, the new 31,000-square-foot emergency department at the Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Centre in Halifax will open its doors to patients and hopefully make what for most people is a traumatic event a little less traumatic.

And if the team in charge of the new emergency department and trauma centre achieve what they’re aiming for, you’ll be seeing them for a lot less time.

"It’s quite scary, but very exciting," Dr. Sam Campbell, chief of emergency medicine at the hospital complex, said Tuesday during a tour of the department, still under construction at the Halifax Infirmary.

The emergency department and trauma centre will be named at a ceremony today.

"The opportunity to (improve the department) in one big swoop is rare," Dr. Campbell said. "But this isn’t our department. It belongs to the community."

He said the new wing at the hospital will also give staff a chance to do their best for patients.

"We really are trying to make it a better workplace because we know if the workers are happy, they’ll be better at what they do, which affects patients. That’s what I’m most excited about."

Dr. Campbell and Sandra Janes, the department’s health services director, are co-leading the team bringing the new emergency room to life.

Emergency departments have notorious reputations as places where patients wait for hours for medical attention, something the pair said the complex is now working hard to correct and they’re confident big improvements will be seen when the $21-million wing opens.

Dr. Campbell predicts that 90 per cent of patients who require emergency room care will have been either discharged or admitted to hospital within six hours.

Ms. Janes said the hospital can’t eliminate waiting, but staff are making changes to streamline the process.

"Waiting is always going to be an issue, but we’re trying to use the wait times better. We’ll try to connect more with people and let them know what’s happening while they wait."

Walk-in patients will use the same entrance as now, but they’ll find a larger and more comfortable waiting area.

After an initial triage assessment, staff will have options of where to send people through the system, depending on their needs and the severity of their medical issues.

For example, those who show up with psychiatric issues will now have their own waiting, assessment and treatment areas. Similar care now provided at the Nova Scotia Hospital in Dartmouth will soon be phased out.

Dr. Campbell said along with determining who is sickest, staff will decide sooner what kind of treatment a person needs and get the ball rolling sooner.

"What are you going to need in your care? Are you going to need a bed, are you going to need X-rays, are you going to need tests or are you going to need a consultation? That will all be determined when you arrive."

He said staff will also be managing patients more wisely by keeping people who don’t need to be in beds out of them, so they’re freed up for those who are more seriously injured or ill.

"What emergency departments have evolved into is earlier assessments, and (being) less bed-centric and more chair-centric," Dr. Campbell said.

The hospital will also be using paramedics to do more procedures like giving stitches or putting on bandages.

The new department will be broken into three areas, starting with patient assessments, then resuscitation, followed by an area for more critical care from nurses and doctors.

Those who arrive by ambulance will be taken into trauma rooms from a rear hallway, a short distance from where the ambulances pull up to the medical centre.

There are also two new large private rooms for family members.

Ms. Janes and Dr. Campbell said the centre’s team honed the procedures and planned for months. It will run a mock drill on June 10 to see how well they’ve done.

"The space itself is more comfortable and it’s bigger, but that’s not going to mean anything if we don’t change our processes," Ms. Janes said. "That’s what we’ve really been focusing on."

The ceremonial opening today caused a bit of a political kerfuffle last week when it became known that Premier Rodney MacDonald would be on hand to do the honours, causing his political opponents to accuse him of using the event as an electioneering stunt.

( [email protected])

Empire · #**323** Posted **May 20, 2009, 12:29 PM**

It's great to have the new emerg. space. It's too bad an opportunity may have been wasted to build another wing in the hospital. Does anyone know if the columns/foundation were sized to handle an addition on top in the future?

geotech · #**324** Posted **May 20, 2009, 3:42 PM**

That was the intent. an extra 6 stories or so.

Empire · #**325** Posted **May 20, 2009, 4:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by geotech

That was the intent. an extra 6 stories or so.

Great planning.

miesh111 · #**326** Posted **May 20, 2009, 5:25 PM**

It will be called "The Cedar's of Lebanon Trauma Centre" as a number of prominent Lebanese families have donated a combined total of $300,000. People such as Wadih Fares, The Ramia Family, and I think another 10 have given $25,000 each to this cause.

Waye Mason · #**327** Posted **May 20, 2009, 5:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by miesh111

It will be called "The Cedar's of Lebanon Trauma Centre" as a number of prominent Lebanese families have donated a combined total of $300,000. People such as Wadih Fares, The Ramia Family, and I think another 10 have given $25,000 each to this cause.

This is wonderful.

Dmajackson · #**328** Posted **May 20, 2009, 7:16 PM**

Here's a tidbit of the updated article. I cut out the political crap;

Premier opens new Halifax ER unit
MacDonald unveils new emergency and trauma centre more than a month before it's open to patients
By AMY SMITH Provincial Reporter
Wed. May 20 - 12:20 PM

Premier Rodney MacDonald unveiled Wednesday the new $20.4 million Charles V. Keating Emergency and Trauma Centre at Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.

The centre, which is slated to open to patients on June 24, will have more ambulance bays, better infectious disease control, a mental health suite, heightened security and X-ray and diagnostic equipment

Barrington south · #**329** Posted **May 21, 2009, 7:26 PM**

not sure what's going on, but the Khyber building on Barrington is covered in scaffolding

hfx_chris · #**330** Posted **May 21, 2009, 9:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrington south

not sure what's going on, but the Khyber building on Barrington is covered in scaffolding

Wasn't it mentioned they want to clean up the facade? Or maybe it was install new windows... or maybe both.

Keith P. · #**331** Posted **May 22, 2009, 9:57 AM**

Too bad... those 3 buildings/shells really keep that block from being anything. I keep hoping someone will get on a Cat D-7 late some night and bulldoze them into oblivion. What a terrible mistake it was to require the facades of the 2 adjacent former buildings to be retained.

hfx_chris · #**332** Posted **May 22, 2009, 11:59 AM**

You mean the one facade... only the NFB building is a facade, the rest are working buildings are they not?
Anyway, I kinda like the look of those buildings (although the NFB facade needs to go so something useful can be built), it adds something interesting to the street. I have no problem with older buildings if they look good, trouble is a lot of them look run down and tired, which cries out for either replacement or major renovations.

Jonovision · #**333** Posted **May 22, 2009, 1:12 PM**

Dartmouth faces last chance to develop big-box housing

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Reporter
Fri. May 22 - 6:37 AM

BELIEVE it or not, the Dartmouth Crossing retail development may represent the last opportunity for significant residential development in Dartmouth.

That’s according to Glenn Munro, managing partner for Eastern Canada for North American Development Group. The developer of Dartmouth Crossing was recently given approval by the Harbour East community council to proceed with a medium- to high-density residential component to the retail shopping area.

Ever since the Department of National Defence decided not to sell off a large portion of CFB Shearwater, Munro says, it has put a crimp in Clayton Developments’ plan to create a residential project that would link its Colby Village, Portland Estates and Russell Lake subdivisions.

In a recent phone conversation from his Montreal office, Munro told me the residential plan for Dartmouth Crossing was put in because of the growing desire by people to work and play within a stone’s throw of where they live.

He predicts that the majority of the people who will be living in Dartmouth Crossing will also work there or in nearby Burnside Business Park.

Although critics of the plan complain it may lead to an increase in the amount of traffic in that part of the city, providing a convenient place for people to live, work and play may actually cut down on traffic in the long run.

However, during the short term, as development of Dartmouth Crossing and Burnside progresses, I have noticed from personal experience that traffic on the Circumferential Highway, which carries most people to Burnside and Dartmouth Crossing, is becoming increasingly congested.

This may be the result of the success of Dartmouth Crossing, or it could be a sign that fewer people choose to use Metro Transit to get around the city. It may also signal that steps will have to be taken to either widen the highway to accommodate more traffic or make significant improvements to the bus system.

Meanwhile, huge mounds of earth are piling up in the parking lot at Penhorn Mall, not far from Dartmouth Crossing.

Having lost Wal-Mart as one of its major anchors to the rival development down the road a couple of years ago, Penhorn’s owners, Empire Co. Ltd. subsidiary ECL Developments Ltd., have been putting the old mall through a makeover.

The company tried to sell the 16-hectare site, but ECL couldn’t find a buyer willing to pay what the company thought it was worth.

So, a brand new Sobeys store was built on the site where the Wal-Mart once stood. With the grocery store now open, construction has started on a new strip mall, which may become home to many of the current tenants in the enclosed Penhorn Mall. The plan includes the construction of several stand-alone buildings, which may include restaurants, located closer to the Portland Street side of the development.

There are also plans for improvements to the current Metro Transit terminal at Penhorn.

Once the first phase of the Penhorn redevelopment is completed, the back end of the property will open up to new possibilities. In fact, it is expected that ECL will put several apartment buildings on about eight hectares of land overlooking Penhorn Lake.

I guess that would make Penhorn one of the last places for residential development in Dartmouth.

That is, until someone else comes up with a plan for redevelopment in another part of the city.

( [email protected])

hfx_chris · #**334** Posted **May 22, 2009, 2:28 PM**

As soon as I read that absurd opening statement, I stopped reading. Talk about fear mongering.

DigitalNinja · #**335** Posted **May 23, 2009, 3:02 AM**

Just a quick update.

I walked down the board walk today, construction is going well on both of the new sections. And the section down by the old power plant is almost completed, they just need to put up the tiny railing thing on the inside.

Also, they have started to tear down parts of the outside of the power station.

planarchy · #**336** Posted **May 23, 2009, 4:04 PM**

Luxury conversion planned for Fenwick
Marilyn Smulders - Metro News Halifax
23 May 2009 10:59

5599 Fenwick Street is about to become an address of downtown luxury.

Templeton Properties has purchased the Dalhousie student residence with plans to fulfill architect Sydney P. Dumaresq’s original vision for Halifax’s highest building. The agreement of purchase and sale has been finalized, and Templeton will take possession on June 15.

“It was designed to be a luxury, high-end building and that’s our vision too,” says Joe Metlege, VP of operations for Templeton Properties, a Halifax-based developer and property management company.

That vision was unrealized back in 1970 when Kenney Construction of Yarmouth declared bankruptcy in the midst of building the 33-storey apartment building. A year later, Dalhousie bought the unfinished tower to provide single and married students an alternative to traditional dorm-style residences.

Last year, Dalhousie decided to sell the building because of mounting costs to update aging building systems; at the time, Jeff Lamb, assistant vice-president, Facilities Management, said the university would rather invest in buildings on campus.

Despite the extensive renovations it needs, Metlege says Fenwick Place is a coveted property because of its size and location, location, location.

“You’d be hard pressed to find a building of that size in Halifax, let alone in south-end Halifax,” he said.

Templeton is now offering Fenwick’s 252 units for rent. Monthly rents range from $700 for bachelor apartments to $1,200 for two-bedroom, fully furnished units.

Students had their leases expire at the end of April, and were given the option of extending their leases until June 14. Even after that date, it is expected some students will continue as tenants with Templeton.

Dalhousie itself will sign five-year leases for departments situated on Fenwick’s promenade level, including the Schools of Human Communications Disorders and Health Administration and the Faculty of Medicine's Learning Resource Centre.

Templeton Properties plans to do a complete facelift of the exterior, making it “softer” and “more modern,” while repairing and retrofitting mechanical and structural systems inside.

"We’re pleased to see this process come to a favorable conclusion for all involved. Fenwick Place has a long and storied history in the development of Dalhousie University and we’re pleased to see the building get a new life with Templeton,” says Ken Burt, Dalhousie Vice President, Finance.

Aya_Akai · #**337** Posted **May 24, 2009, 1:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by planarchy

Templeton Properties plans to do a complete facelift of the exterior, making it “softer” and “more modern,” while repairing and retrofitting mechanical and structural systems inside.

I'd just now like to know when that is going to happen... lol

Barrington south · #**338** Posted **May 24, 2009, 5:40 PM**

and I would like to know when they are going to reopen the pool....I can't wait to go for a dip...

miesh111 · #**339** Posted **May 25, 2009, 6:14 PM**

As much ridicule this is getting, if you think about how much Dalhousie had this listed for, and then how much needs to go in to make it livable and luxury, It seems still worth while. You can't build in Downtown Halifax for less than $200,000 a door, land included, and Templeton, by my math, with a $10 million renovation, will still be paying under $100,000.

Makes sense to me, even though it's fun to make fun of.

Dmajackson · #**340** Posted **May 28, 2009, 7:38 PM**

For any Pinky's fans out there;

Pinky's Ice Cream is opening a new location on Cronwallis Street near the Armoury this year. Its expected to open on July 18th and in addition to ice cream it will sell donairs and pizzas.

PPP and Sir Sanford Flemming Park open on June 1st, LeBrun September 1st, and the main Bedford one (the busiest apparently) opens June 1st.