A new urgent and primary care centre in Cranbrook will ease congestion for patients at East Kootenay Regional Hospital.
The new facility began a phased-in opening in Cranbrook Wednesday, with regular hours scheduled to begin Monday, December 13th at the Baker Street Mall, near Safeway.
Executive Director of Clinical Operations for the East Kootenay Terri Domin says the team has been working hard to get this facility up and running.
She feels it will be a huge step towards taking pressure off the local emergency department.
“We’ve taken patients that don’t need emergency care out of the emergency room and into a facility that will be able to meet their needs and allow the emergency department the opportunity to focus on the sick and critically injured that are attending for care at East Kootenay Regional Hospital,” Domin says.
Domin says the new facility will be especially helpful for those who don’t have a family physician.
“This facility is going to allow us to work on attachment,” Domin says. “So people that don’t have a family physician will be able to be attached to a primary care provider through attending their urgent and primary care centre.”
Domin says planning for the facility began in earnest around June, she’s pleased that the project came together so quickly.
Plans call for the facility to be fully operational by April 2022 with a team of approximately 28 full-time equivalent clinical health-care staff.
– Terri Domin, Interior Health’s Executive Director of Clinical Operations for the East Kootenay
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