Not getting 'pounded' by emergency department has let this rural P.E.I. hospital flourish

A physician in Western P.E.I. says closing O'Leary's emergency department has given hospital staff the freedom they need to provide a host of new services for the region.

Dr. Gil Grimes, a family doctor at Community Hospital O'Leary, admits it's not what he would have predicted back in 2008.

That's when provincial government officials removed emergency and outpatient services at the hospital, centralizing those services at the nearby Western Hospital in Alberton. 

"Not having the emergency room gives us a lot of freedom in here to do different things," Grimes said this week.

"The whole reason we have the palliative unit, the whole reason we can do such excellent restorative and rehabilitative care, is because we're not constantly getting pounded by the emergency department." 

Grimes moved to P.E.I. from Texas, after seeing a quarter-page ad in a magazine. He said if the hospital were still trying to staff an emergency department, he doesn't believe it would have the services it has today. 

"Having said that, it was a loss to lose the emergency department because it was something that was really incredibly valued by the community," he said.

While not having an emergency department or an outpatient program, Community Hospital O'Leary does have a host of services, including 11 medical beds for patients from across the province looking to get back on their feet from surgery or a major health setback.

The facility provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehab, public health, and homecare services. There is also a full lab and X-ray service. 

The palliative care wing, the only other designated palliative care centre outside of Charlottetown's, can accommodate up to four people at a time. 

The building also houses a long-term care facility and a medical centre. 

"At O'Leary, we really try to limit the kind of people we take so that we don't take people who are too sick to be here," said Grimes.

"So, if you are someone who was sick enough that had, I don't know, say a 50 or 60 per cent chance of needing to go to the intensive care unit or the progressive care unit, we'd probably wouldn't admit you, because you need to be someplace where you can get to those units more quickly." 

Colleen Bannon, the nurse manager at Community Hospital O'Leary, agrees with Grimes that the decision to close the emergency department allowed the staff to concentrate on what it can do really well.