Final Patients Return To Heron Terrace
13-6-2020
Windsor Regional Hospital is pleased to announce that the final five patients from its "field hospital" at St. Clair College for COVID-19 patients have returned safely to the Heron Terrace long-term care home in east Windsor.
The departure of these last patients at the facility, which opened for hospital use on April 17, marks a milestone in the local pandemic process. More than 50 individuals were admitted to the St. Clair College Sportsplex for care after they tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
"The goal was to care for the COVID-19 positive LTC residents, allowing for cohorting for better overall protection in an environment better equipped for increasing complexities of care. Through the partnership with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Heron Terrace, and St. Clair College this became a reality," said WRH President and CEO David Musyj. "We are extremely proud of the compassionate, extraordinary care our professional staff and employees provided to these residents and the contact with their families throughout several weeks of anxiety and uncertainty about COVID-19. And we thank the many families for their support of the process and the privilege of caring for their loved ones. We all cried, supported, and cheered together during these last few months. This is what health care is all about."
"I can't thank our families, and residents, our loyal and dedicated team members, and our devoted health care professionals at WRH, and HDGH enough for all their support and understanding through these tough times," said Amy Sworik, Administrator/Executive Director, Heron Terrace.
"It has been our honour to have played host to this field hospital and, also, to have donated equipment to local hospitals as they battled the pandemic," said St. Clair College President Patti France. "Our involvement sprang from the remarkable, Windsor-Essex mindset that always arises in times of crisis. Individual citizens, businesses, and institutions step forward to say 'How can we help?' This was St. Clair's answer to that question; and we stand ready, always, to provide similar assistance to the community whenever its well-being is threatened."
As announced on April 2, WRH reached an agreement with St. Clair College to use the College's SportsPlex - a stand-alone athletic facility on the main campus - as a field hospital for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In barely over two weeks, the Sportsplex was transformed into a 100-bed hospital facility. The Sportsplex has been staffed by WRH employees and professional staff the same way we would staff a typical WRH in-patient unit and will now be redeployed to WRH's main facilities. Also, the facility, while now "paused" for clinical care, will be available should the need arise to reuse the facility. Windsor Regional Hospital is working with St Clair College and the Ministry of Health on the details of the ongoing availability of the facility.
Similar to a long-term care facility, visitors were not permitted. However, we were able to provide every resident with an iPad or Android device to communicate with their loved ones, under the same program recently introduced at both campuses, as described here:
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