New Misericordia Community Hospital Emergency Department project team

Jessica Fryk, Jacqueline Frost, Lynn Vandenbrink, Rosemary Malowany, Heath Ramsden, Taysia Macmillan, Evelyn MacKinnon, Jo Ann Molloy, Dr. Colleen Sweeney, Dr. Felix Soibelman.

On November 21, 2023, the new Misericordia Community Hospital’s emergency department opened. Construction began in 2019. The emergency department redevelopment team did an outstanding job collaborating and leveraging the strengths of diverse stakeholders with wide expertise. Due to countless hours of intense collaboration between people, teams and organizations across Alberta, this new facility can serve triple the number of patients and provide the highest quality of care to them and their families.

The emergency department redevelopment team brought together groups inside and outside of Covenant Health. They worked with Alberta Health, Alberta Infrastructure, Alberta Health Services, and the Covenant Health Executive Leadership Team to secure funding for the design, development and construction of the new emergency department. Working with Covenant Foundation and the media, donations for facility enhancements were promoted. The team coordinated the cleaning and stocking of supplies and equipment by all the teams that would be working in the new space. Collaborating with clinical nurse educators from across the hospital, orientation and training was delivered to everyone working in the new emergency department.

With such a large, significant project communication was critical to its success. Hospital staff received project information through town hall meetings, updates, newsletters, the intranet and other tools. There were regular stakeholder meetings. The team used SharePoint and Teams to share key documents. The team ensured there was a targeted recruitment campaign to ensure the new emergency department would have the staff it needed.