Upgrades and renovations at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital (CEE Hospital) in Petrolia are taking form and offer a glimpse of what future renovations will look like.
Two newly renovated patient rooms were recently unveiled.
"They're absolutely beautiful! I'm very, very excited," said Bluewater Health Vice President of Operations Laurie Zimmer. "We've been working very hard over the last number of years to get to this point and this is just one of many opportunities that we're going to be able to do for the infrastructure at the Petrolia hospital."
In total, 10 patient care rooms will be renovated with private bathrooms to meet patient care and accessibility needs. Acute care rooms at CEE Hospital were previously semi-private with shared bathrooms, and did not include a shower.
There is no set timeline as to when the eight remaining rooms will be renovated.
"We're going to do it in phases... so two rooms at a time. We're in the midst of planning the next two rooms in the next couple of months," said Zimmer.
Aside from modernizing the rooms, the hospital has also received boiler plant and electrical upgrades. Renovations through a 25-year CEE Hospital Redevelopment Plan were made possible after Bluewater Health set aside $5.8 million for infrastructural upgrades and the Ministry of Health invested $7.5 million in 2017.
Zimmer said some aspects of the CEE Hospital Redevelopment Project Plan were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but overall, the process has gone smoothly.
The second stage of the plan has started, which involves moving services more centrally into renovated spaces. Zimmer said part of the second stage will involve renovations of the existing emergency room and diagnostic imaging.