Ushering in a new era of healthcare at PRHC

Cardiac doctor hugging patient at bedside

So much has been happening at Peterborough Regional Health Centre! We’re sharing a few of the highlights as we reflect on the last year and look ahead to the future of healthcare at PRHC…

For so many of us, the pandemic highlighted just how fortunate we are to have outstanding healthcare available in our region when we need it most.

Throughout COVID-19, your hospital’s role in our region became increasingly important, especially during the third wave when a critical care surge threatened to overwhelm Intensive Care Units across Ontario.

PRHC served as the lead for the five hospitals in our region and was the receiving hospital for patient transfers. The Health Centre ramped up its critical care capacity and over five months, accepted 76 patient transfers from outside our region to support the system-wide response to the surge.

As vaccination rates rose and case counts trended downwards, PRHC began ramping up non-urgent services and adjusted its visiting policy. No matter what comes, however, your hospital continues to manage and carefully allocate resources within this challenging healthcare landscape while continuing to advocate for the current and future patient care needs of PRHC, our community and our region.

Peterborough has become one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, with one of the oldest populations. During the past five years, PRHC has seen increases in its patient volumes and the level of care those patients need. In response, the Health Centre has expanded and enhanced programs and services as both a community hospital and a regional referral hub for our surrounding communities. Their goal and ours remains the same: to continue to bring specialized care closer to home for patients. That’s a mission that’s never been more important.

One exciting project underway is the launch of PRHC’s Clinical Information System (CIS), Epic. Launching a CIS is one of the most important transformations a hospital can make. It’s been almost a decade in the works at PRHC. Epic will enable seamless access to health information across the Health Centre and six other hospital organizations, enhancing patient safety and quality of care. This collaboration represents the largest number of individual organizations joining together on the Epic system in Ontario. It will transform the way healthcare is delivered for generations to come.

Looking ahead to the next five, 10 and 20 years of the hospital’s evolution, PRHC is in the early stages of its Master Planning process.

In its bold vision for the future, PRHC will be the go-to large acute care hospital between Kingston and the Greater Toronto Area for patients to receive care. We and our donors will be by their side, helping fund essential equipment and technology, and exciting innovations, to support this transformation.

Thank you for your continued support as we usher in the next era of healthcare in our region!

Impact Spotlight: Orthopedic Surgical Camera

A surgeon holds a camera beside surgical imaging equipment

Last year when your hospital needed help to fund a new, top of the line camera to facilitate orthopedic surgeries, our community responded with enthusiasm. As a result, the PRHC Foundation was able to fund this state-of-the-art camera. It’s been on site and in use since early this year.

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Crawford Dobson and his colleagues are grateful for your support. The high definition camera is helping them perform minimally invasive arthroscopic knee and shoulder repair for hundreds of patients a year, so they can quickly get back to living their lives with less pain and more mobility.

“Our new high definition camera allows us to see very subtle differences in tissues to diagnose and treat conditions that we might not otherwise have been able to treat or done so easily,” says Dr. Dobson. “Thank you for all your generous donations. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to function in the same capacity.”

We love our hardworking healthcare workers!

A manager gives two nurses gift boxes
A message of thanks on a card with a gift box

Peterborough Regional Health Centre has an incredible team of nurses, staff and doctors. Over the last year, they have demonstrated courage and strength while continuing to provide care and support for patients and their families.

We’re so proud of them, and grateful for the work they do, every day. And we’re grateful to all of the donors who have helped us support them throughout the pandemic.

Donor generosity funded tools and supports such as additional scrubs, new plexiglass screening stations at hospital entry points, and iPads and supportive equipment for the Virtual Visiting Program so isolated patients can connect with loved ones.

Thanks to your donations, PRHC is better positioned in 2021 to continue caring for as many patients as possible while keeping patients, families, volunteers and PRHC’s 3,200 workers safe.

Now, PRHC Foundation is honoured to partner again with your hospital to show our healthcare providers how much we – and you, through your donations and kind messages of thanks – appreciate them. This week, 3,200 wellness kits made possible by the generosity of Foundation donors are being delivered to the Health Centre’s nurses, staff and physicians. Each kit includes both fun and healthy treats, and self-care products.

We also included one of a selection of the hundreds of personal notes of appreciation Foundation donors sent to us this year for our PRHC team members. We join the hospital in hoping these tokens of our and your gratitude bring a smile to their faces. 

As they tackle the third wave, our work continues. Our mission has never been more important. In addition to funding PRHC’s most urgent needs including COVID-19, your gifts are helping to give the hospital’s experts the essential tools they need to save lives.

If you’d like to support your hospital, please visit prhcfoundation.ca/love/. There you can send a message to the PRHC team and make a donation in their honour. Thank you for continuing to show them your grateful hearts!

Donor-funded tools and scrubs are supporting and protecting PRHC patients and staff

Last year at the start of the pandemic, as PRHC’s leaders and staff mobilized to prepare for the spread of COVID-19, the PRHC Foundation and our donors mobilized to support them. A fund was created to respond to urgent pandemic-related needs, and we were overwhelmed with your outpouring of support for your hospital.

A direct mail appeal and generous matching gift commitments inspired community donations. Online donors made tribute gifts in honour of frontline workers and sent messages of thanks to them. Under social distancing restrictions, businesses, organizations and individuals got creative with their own initiatives and directed funds to the cause.

As a result, the COVID-19 response fund had an immediate impact, helping aid and protect healthcare providers and patients. You funded a crucial supply of additional scrubs for staff and physicians, new plexiglass screening stations at hospital entry points, and iPads and supportive equipment so isolated palliative patients can connect with loved ones.

And when Trent University donated residence space as temporary housing so PRHC staff could isolate while working on the front line, your donations funded some of the additional costs necessary in support of this arrangement.

In addition to generous donations to the Foundation, you showed your love for PRHC in many ways: window and lawn signs, chalk drawings, gratitude rocks, drive-through parades, donations of personal protective equipment and homemade masks, and so much more. All of this kindness has been so appreciated.

You’ve demonstrated that we are all in this together. On behalf of everyone at PRHC and the PRHC Foundation, thank you.

If you’d like to make an impact, please donate online, or for more information, please call 705-876-5000.