Bow Island Health Centre is an integrated care facility which serves all its rural population's medical needs with acute care, long-term care and special needs care all under one roof.
The Bow Island Health Centre
Beyond the Bricks and Mortar By TIM KALINOWSKI
Seniors at Bow Island's Sunny South Care Centre enjoy a visit together in the recreation room.
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Bow Island Health Centre manager Alta Magee shows off the new acute care wing of the Bow Island Health Centre. Magee has been working at the Bow Island Health Centre since 1989.
Dr. Lynn Edwards has a lot to smile about these days with the recent renovations to the Bow Island Health Centre.
28 | 2013 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
t’s a cold, blustery day in Bow Island. Banks of snow blow across the streets and the temperature is bone cold. It’s the kind of day that’s killer cold, a day when it’s better to stay inside. It’s the kind of day when
Alta Magee, manager of the Bow Island Health Centre, is grateful to have the new ambulance bay to keep new arrivals out of the cold.
But no emergencies today thankfully, just the routine of tests, check-ups and hellos spoken between co-workers and patients. Bow Island is a world unto itself with a dedicated staff working all levels of health care from acute to long term to special needs. In rural health care, explains long time Bow Island physician Dr. Lynn Edwards, each staff member has to be ready to pitch in wherever they can.
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“The uniqueness of rural medicine is we get to handle everything that comes in,” Edwards explains. “There are lots of challenges here and there is never a boring day. I think in a rural situation we also have a closer relationship with our nurses, working with them and respecting their judgment, depending on their judgments, than probably a lot of city doctors do.”
Edwards is ecstatic the Bow Island Health Centre has finally gotten its new emergency and acute care wing after many years of waiting and wondering. He says the lack of space he and the other doctors and nurses have had to put up with this past decade is farcical.
“Before this expansion the nurses would triage patients in an old washroom. We converted one washroom and turned the
other into a unisex because we didn’t have any private space to triage our patients,” explains Edwards. “When the expansion was put on hold by Alberta Health Services, we didn’t know if it would ever occur. I hate to say it, but I was extremely surprised when one day I saw the ground broke. We had kind of given up on it.”
Edwards says he and the other two doctors at the Bow Island Health Centre are kept extremely busy with an increasing local population and with
I like the people. I like the challenges of rural medicine.
Medicine Hat patients now making their way down to Bow Island more frequently — patient visits to the health centre are up 20 per cent this year alone. But for all the challenges he faces in doctoring for a diverse rural population, Edwards says he wouldn’t give up the rural lifestyle for anything.
“I like the people. I like the challenges of rural medicine,” states Edwards. “And I like the rural lifestyle.”
Edwards returns to his rounds and Alta Magee leads on toward the older part of the hospital. Magee explains this space was what they had to work with before the 2012 expansion nearly doubled the size of the health centre. Magee has the rhythm of the cramped and busy hospital down perfectly as she walks toward Sunnyside Care Centre located in another wing. Inside elderly residents, most in wheelchairs, sit socializing in the dining room or in the halls. Everyone seems to know Magee, and family members come to her personally to complain about the
temperature settings in the wing. She promises them she’ll look into it and assigns an aide to find out if something can be done. Another elderly lady cries as she complains about missing her relatives. Magee talks to the recreation director to see if someone can go lift the resident’s spirits. Another white haired lady smiles brightly and gives a little wave from her wheelchair as Magee passes by.
— Dr. Lynn Edwards ”
Magee took over as manager of the Bow Island Health Centre six years ago, but spent 35 years as a nurse before that. She moved from Medicine Hat to Bow Island in 1989. She says coming into a rural community like Bow Island was initially a huge adjustment for her.
“When I came to rural it was a whole new ballgame,” Magee remembers. “I was learning all over again and I really enjoyed the variety... The atmosphere here is very much a teamwork atmosphere. There’s a great deal of cooperation in between departments. It’s just that whole atmosphere that everybody pitches in. Everybody does their best to make sure that the quality is there.”
Magee pushes forward, eager to show off one of the most unique aspects of the Bow Island Health Centre: Alfred Egan Home is a dedicated care facility to help those with severe developmental difficulties. More than 30 residents, many of them young, live there on an ongoing basis. Most of the residents require 24-hour medical care. The halls of Alfred Egan Home are painted in peaceful and subtle shades. The rooms are bright and spacious and a beautiful hand-made quilt hangs at the end of the hallway donated by the mother of a former resident.
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