Cardiovascular Diseases
The Maternity Center at St. Paul Medical center
The Obstetrics Department of the St. Paul Medical center is in currently the process of revamping its maternity center. This process would take about one and half years to complete. it is hoped that the whole process would meet every deadline stipulated for the project to be completed. In order to fully comprehend the process of the project, this paper hereby presents details about the hospital, the need for the expansion, the type of patient population that the hospital serves and a full description of the proposed facility.
St. Paul Medical Center is about 95 years old in existence. It has grown from a two-bed clinic when it was established, into a five hundred and twenty-bed hospital that offers services in different specialties, including medical specialties like cardiology, neurology, rheumatology and respiratory medicine. in addition, It offers services in surgical specialties like general surgery, orthopedic surgery, pediatric surgery, obstetrics and gynecology. However, the recent rating of all hospitals in the country shows that the hospital is not well known in some surgical specialties like orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology. The obstetric unit of the hospital currently has twenty-five beds and five operating theatres. It also has an emergency unit where emergency cases are attended. a breakdown of the unit shows that the antenatal ward has ten beds, the post-natal ward, also ten beds and the emergency ward of the unit has five beds. The obstetric unit of the hospital serves as a referral center for several smaller hospitals in the town and adjourning towns. it provides high quality services in the area of obstetrics to pregnant mothers, managing their care from conception to delivery. recent developments have seen some of these smaller hospitals upgrade both their facilities and expertise to the extent that they now provide better care to patients in the area of obstetrics. in view of this, St. Paul medical center has lost its status as a referral center for these hospitals.
In the last ten years, moreover, the hospital has lost some of its eminent professors in the field of obstetrics to other hospitals simply because those hospitals had better facilities to run their obstetric units. in order to amend this, the board of directors of the hospital are proposing a total overhaul of the obstetrics unit of the hospital to make it one of the most technologically up-to-date in the country in order to attract the best brains in the field and also to regain their status as the hospital with the best obstetrics unit in the country. In view of this, the hospital is proposing a new obstetrics unit that would have the fifty-bed capacity, which would amount to a 100% increase in the number of hospital beds that the unit has, up from its current twenty-five bed capacity.
The New Obstetrics Center
The proposed Obstetrics complex, among other things, would boast of its own Intensive care ward, its own central laboratory and blood bank, and an increase in the number of operating theatres. The proposed cost of the project is $240 million. The project is proposed to be completed in five years with its commissioning coinciding with the centenary anniversary of the hospital. The project has already gone through the process of conceptualization as the need to set up the facility has already been justified. A feasibility study has already been carried out to determine the feasibility of the project. The new expanded building will cater for the obstetric needs of pregnant women in the town and serve as a referral centre for smaller hospitals in the locality when it is concluded. A preliminary cost estimation of the project shows that it will cost $240 million. The hospital has contracted the design of the complex out to an architect and a detailed design of t complex has been done.
Personnel
The obstetrics unit currently has three consultant obstetricians, ten midwives and five nurses working in the facility. with the increase in the number of beds, the number of employees needs to be scaled up. There is a need to employ an additional three obstetricians, twelve midwives and seven nurses to complement the services of the current employees. under the current setting, the anesthesiologist, anesthetist and nurse anesthetists are not resident in the unit. They are usually posted to the department by the department of anesthesiologist. However, with the new proposed arrangement, there would be a need to retain these staff in the department. To this end, there would be a need for the hospital to employ two new consultant anesthesiologists and five anesthetic nurses. The rationale behind this is that the unit is going to be running its own intensive care department in the unit and this would require the presence of these anesthesiologists and anesthetists. The cost implication of this has also been factored into the total cost of the project.
The hospital, a charitable hospital is being run by the Anglican church. about 70% of the funding for the day-to-day running of the hospital comes from the church. In the last 20 years, funding that comes from revenue has increased from 10% to 30% due to the implementation of the National Health Care policy. In addition, the hospital has retainership of some corporate organizations, which the hospital provides health care service for its staff. The funding for this project is being handled by a committee set up by the church. It has the mandate to provide 80% of the funds, this amounts to $200 million. the hospital is meant to raise the remaining part of the funds.
At present, the project is already on course, with a startup fund of $50 million provided for the project. a public advertisement of the tender for the completion of the project has already been made and the contract is said to be awarded in two months time. Things are going at a slow pace owing to the fact that funds for the project is not yet available. The project will commence in earnest as soon as funds are made available.
References
St. Paul Medical Centre (2001). Towards The Proposed Maternity Complex. St Paul Medical Centre Annual Reports.
L, Hiranandani (2012). 5 Steps of Hospital PlanningHealthcare Simplified.
