Centres of Medical Excellence
The Royal Alexandra Hospital is home to four medical centres.The Eye Institute of Alberta
The Eye Institute of Alberta offers specialized care and treatment for a variety of ophthalmologic conditions. This institute is the only hospital-based comprehensive eye treatment centre in Northern Alberta, treating patients from across Western Canada and the Northern Territories.CK Hui Heart Centre
The CK Hui Heart Centre specializes in the non-surgical treatment of coronary artery disease, as well as interventional cardiology. The Centre performs minimally invasive interventional cardiac procedures and hosts a number of progressive programs focusing on prevention, stabilization, multicultural needs, rehabilitation, maternal heart health and angina.Orthopedic Surgery Centre
The Orthopedic Surgery Centre is dedicated solely to hip and knee replacement. With four operating suites and more than 50 beds, the Orthopedic Surgery Centre performs more than 4,000 joint surgeries a year.Lois Hole Hospital for Women
The Lois Hole Hospital for Women is Alberta's only dedicated women's hospital offering high risk obstetrical and maternal care as well as surgical treatment for women of all ages and in all stages of life. Over 7500 babies are born at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women each year. The hospital has six operating rooms for obstetrics and gynecological procedures. Each operating room is designed specifically for women's health procedures. The hospital is home to Canada's first da Vinci surgical robot dedicated to women's health allowing for minimally invasive urogynecological and gynecological surgeries.Additional Medical Centres
Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery
The Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery (CAMIS) is a teaching facility providing surgical training and education for nurses, medical students, residents, surgeons and allied health providers. CAMIS provides a place for research in the clinical experience and improvements of minimally invasive surgery.Alberta Thoracic Oncology Program
The Alberta Thoracic Oncology Program (ATOP) operates a Rapid Access Clinic at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. This program is for patients with lung cancer.History
The Royal Alexandra Hospital is named afterHarm reduction
The Royal Alexandra Hospital opened the first hospital-based safe consumption site in North America in 2018. The site is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but is available for hospital patients only. The in-hospital resources are able to serve six patients at any given time. It is staffed by nurses, and patients have access to their doctor, counsellors, social workers and peer-support workers to connect them with resources like mental health support, social supports and opioid-dependency treatment.Current challenges
Several reports released by Alberta Health Services (and Capital Health prior to the establishment of AHS) have listed the Royal Alexandra Hospital as a priority health need with many of the campus buildings not able to provide adequate patient measures for patient safety, privacy and dignity. The Active Treatment Centre inpatient tower – which currently houses over 500 inpatient beds – "is truly obsolete and requires replacement." Rooms in this building often house four to five patients. The current HVAC and electrical infrastructure is too old to be updated and there is frequent electrical fires and flooding. The Emergency Department requires a major expansion to meet its current workload. There is a shortage of observation (intermediate care/monitored) beds throughout the facility that affects all programs. Surgery can be cancelled due to shortage of observation beds, and movement of patients out of Emergency and ICU can be obstructed by lack of available beds. Psychiatry programs for children, adolescents and adults are all in substandard spaces that present risks to patients and to staff. The outpatient clinic is small and does not have needed spaces. Initial patient assessments and some patient recovery take place in hallways. The Bridging Unit and Transition Units are in very poor quality spaces that do not meet the needs of vulnerable, frail elderly patients. There are large psychiatry/mental health populations served by RAH but there are insufficient or inadequate spaces for program delivery. Under Premier Jim Prentice's Progressive Conservative Party, Hon. Stephen Mendel, made the announcement that the Royal Alexandra Hospital would receive the funding needed to rebuild; however, the Progressive Conservative Party lost the provincial election months after this announcement and the allocation of this funding to the Royal Alexandra Hospital was temporarily removed by Premier Rachel Notley's New Democratic Party in 2015 in order to reassess all capital region hospitals as a whole despite campaigning on the inadequacies of the facility. In 2017, the Government of Alberta announced that more than $520 million had been allocated to the Royal Alexandra Hospital campus as part of a $1 billion investment in Alberta hospitals. The two major projects funded at the Royal Alexandra include $155 million for a brand new child and youth mental health building, and $364 million for an overhaul of CapitalCare Norwood. The latter project will increase the number of enhanced, long-term care beds from 205 to 350 at Norwood.Foundation
The Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation was started in 1984 to support the Royal Alexandra Hospital. The Foundation is accredited by Imagine Canada and is managed by a Board of Directors. The Foundation has been involved in a variety of major campaigns for the Royal Alexandra Hospital site such as the building of Robbins Pavilion, the CK Hui Heart Centre, and renovations to the Eye Institute of Alberta. The Foundation also works with and funds research that is occurring on the hospital site and works with community organizations to support the inner city patient population.References
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