A shipping container is providing a place where families can meet with loved ones who are living in long-term care at Queen’s Park Care Centre.
Up until now, families wanting to visit their loved one in a safe and private way could only do so via a window visit, where a health-care worker brings a resident to a window at a specified time for a visit. Fraser Health and the Queen’s Park Healthcare Foundation have created a new visitor centre inside a renovated shipping container, which now provides a place where residents and patients can visit.
“It’s an innovative way to bring families together,” Karl Segnoe, whose 92-year-old grandmother lives at Queen’s Park Care Centre, said in a news release. “I have every confidence in the staff to keep my grandmother safe, but I fear social isolation is taking a toll on her well-being. Being able to visit as a family will be huge because my grandmother is such an important person in our lives.”
The shipping container is heated and furnished, with separate entrances for residents and families. A clear Plexiglas partition permits private, distanced visits for one resident and up to four visitors at a time.
“Residents in long-term care and their families have endured so much during the pandemic,” said Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO, Fraser Health. “I’m grateful to the Queen’s Park Healthcare Foundation for helping us move this project forward so families can connect with their loved ones in this unique way.”
Lizz Kelly, executive director of the Queen’s Park Healthcare Foundation, came up with the idea and got the ball rolling.
“We had the space, so I applied for a $25,000 federal grant,” she said. “All of us at Queen’s Park Care Centre are looking forward to the day when COVID-19 is behind us and we can remove the partition in the visitor centre so families can celebrate together and hug each other. The pandemic has taught us that the small things in life are really the most important.”
Kelly said the container arrived in December. While there are currently around 30 visits a week, it's hoping to soon expand the hours and visits to 45 per week.
“Since Jan. 8, we have had 60 visits for the second-floor long-term care, with an average of three to five visits per day during the week and an average of two per day on the weekend,” Kelly told the Record. “There are also visits from the rehabilitation patients.”
According to Fraser Health, all visits adhere to public health guidelines. Visitors must wear a mask and sanitize their hands, complete a COVID-19 screening form, have their temperature checked and enter and exit via the visitor entrance of the container.
A health-care worker escorts the patient or resident into the container using the resident entrance and remains inside for the visit. There is no contact outside the container before or after the visit.
While the number of visitors is limited to four at a time, Queen’s Park Care Centre still offers window visits and virtual visits for larger groups.
Queen’s Park Care Centre is an acute- and long-term care facility in New Westminster that supports 77 rehab patients and 148 residents.
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