Christmas Through the Years at RCH

This week’s New Westminster NewsLeader had a great story and photo of Santa arriving at Royal Columbian Hospital by helicopter, bringing Christmas smiles and cheer to patients and staff. It wasn’t the first time he had arrived by air ambulance (see From Buckboard to Sikorsky),

Santa arrives at RCH Heliport 2005

and it certainly wasn’t the first time that people in the community had worked to bring comfort and cheer to hospital patients.

From the very beginning of the hospital in 1862, individuals and groups in the immediate vicinity and throughout the colony, worked hard to assist the patients and staff in any way they could. Most often this entailed raising funds, but it also frequently entailed personal gifts and entertainment for the patients. The Vancouver Sun in 1922 tells us that “between 90 and 100 patients at the Royal Columbian Hospital will receive tasteful little boxes packed with candies and fruits Christmas morning from the women’s auxiliary to the hospital.”

The newspaper in 1912 tells of the Women’s Auxiliary gathering donations to buy presents for the patients, while the local Boy Scout troop visited the hospital, toured the wards and distributed “presents of fruit and Christmas cheer”. The following year, in 1913, the Auxiliary placed baskets in local stores so that local residents could place donations in them – “candies, fruit, magazines, books, toys” that were to be distributed on Christmas Day. Also that year, a group of 30 young ladies held a “Cinderella Dance” (a dancing party that was to end at midnight) on December 26th to raise funds for RCH.

In earlier years, we see an even more personal involvement on the part of the general population. Just before Christmas of 1882, some Board members were in the hospital “inspecting the accounts” when they heard “the melody of sweet voices that filled one of the wards. On making inquiry they discovered that two ladies, well known in the city, are in the habit of calling on the patients and soothing their sorrows with vocal music”.

In the first decade of the hospital’s operation, there was often a grand ball or soirée held at the Drill Hall just before or after Christmas to raise funds for the hospital. In 1865, according to the local newspaper, the Ball was a great success, both socially and financially. There were very elaborate decorations, chandeliers and lamps that made the Drill Hall almost unrecognizable. About 100 people attended, “the ladies’ dresses were elegant and tasteful…. while the music, under the able leadership of Mr. Bushby, lent a charm to the whole.” And, although “no regular supper was provided” because the Board wanted all proceeds to go to the Hospital, “dancing was kept up till 2 o’clock with great vigour and all appeared to enjoy the occasion.” The sum of $150 was raised and added to the hospital funds.

In 1882, the patients in Royal Columbian wrote a letter to the editor including all their names, that said, “We, the patients in the Royal Columbian Hospital, herewith return our heartfelt thanks to the kind friends who so thoughtfully provided for us the bounteous dinner on this Christmas. To Mr. Jackson, the Steward of the Hospital, and the ladies who so ably assisted him in setting it before us in so tempting a manner, is due great praise and our grateful remembrance”.

Than, as now, when help was needed, individuals responded, and all contributions, large or small, were very much appreciated.

It All Started With A Few Test Tubes

There are few if any departments at any hospital that do not depend on laboratory services to be able to function safely, efficiently and effectively. But “laboratory services” have changed dramatically over a relatively short period of time.

The function of laboratory services was first provided at the Royal Columbian Hospital in 1918, but it was not done on site. Mr. Gooding, a bacteriologist, was contracted at the rate of $30 per month, and worked at his laboratory at the Public Hospital for the Insane. His lab work consisted primarily of analysing specimens using only a few test tubes, reagents and a microscope.

The lab at Royal Columbian Hospital itself began in 1920 in a vacant room in the basement of the 1912 building. Mr. Louis A Breun was appointed as Chief Bacteriologist to manage the laboratory, X-ray and pharmacy departments with the assistance of one technician – Miss Isobel Barr.

Sixteen years later, the following article appeared in The British Columbian, Royal Columbian Hospital 75th Anniversary Edition, 1937.

“Fine Laboratory Built Up During 16 Year Period

One of the proudest assets of the Royal Columbian Hospital is the up-to-date laboratory, started with a few test tubes 16 years ago by L.A. Breun, chief bacteriologist and gradually built up by him into the very complete and efficient department it is today. It is the lab that diagnoses thousands of cases by testing blood, tissues or fluids taken from a sick patient.
Mr. Breun is assisted by Miss I. Barr, technician, and shortly the laboratory will be expanded and the quarters doubled. The basal metabolism department will be extended and Mr. Breun will be given additional assistants.
The laboratory may handle between 650 and 800 cases every month, some specimens requiring numerous special tests.
Since the laboratory was started, Mr. Breun has handled 32,023 pathological tests. These are not the routine tests, which run into a large number more. In the past five years, the number of monthly tests made in the lab have doubled. Besides tests for germs and tests of cultures, Mr. Breun does section work, such as studying tissues for cancer and so forth.
In addition to all sorts of pathological and routine hospital tests the department makes any tests required by the city department of health, such as tests of milk and water and for infectious diseases.
In 16 years the department has gradually acquired a fine array of microscopes, culture incubators and similar equipment. Mr. Breun has also accumulated an unusually complete range of pathological exhibits and a fine library.”

As the hospital grew, so did the need for a histological department and in 1948, Dr. P.S. Rutherford became the first permanent pathologist at RCH. He had a staff of 8, including himself, 6 technologists and 1 stenographer. Eventually, in 1952 the lab moved from the basement to the top floor of the old wing of the 1912 building, and included a training school for technologists.

The concept of a Regional Laboratory Service was introduced in the mid-50s, and the role of a lab technologist began to change with automated equipment and computers becoming a standard part of the work.

Would Adrian Breun or Isobel Barr recognize any of the equipment in a hospital laboratory today? What would they make of the partial list of procedures available from Outpatient Laboratory Services at Royal Columbian Hospital that includes “blood and urine collection for chemical analysis to determine glucose/lactose tolerance, cholesterol level, HDL/LDL and triglyceride level, and blood gas analysis; sweat chlorides, bone marrow testing, H. pylori breath tests, fine needle aspirates, coagulation testing and endocrine simulation tests?

Diane Oberg RCH Lab Technologist 1998

They might well wish that they could have been part of the exciting and complex world of laboratory medicine of 2012, but without the groundwork they and others did in the first half of the 20th century, none of today’s services would be possible.

They would certainly have been impressed if they had seen the full double rainbow on December 4, 2012 clearly indicating that RCH really is worth its weight in gold!

Double rainbow Dec 4, 2012 over Royal Columbian Hospital. Courtesy of A Sense of History Research Services.

RCH Medical Record Librarian School First in BC

The Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA) celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2007.

CHIMA represents more than 3,700 certified Health Information Management (HIM™ ) professionals from across Canada in addition to 1,300 affiliate, student and retired members. HIM professionals are employed in hospitals; in the community health and extended care sectors; government; health and education institutions; the private sector including insurance and pharmaceutical companies; technology vendors; and consulting firms. The skills and knowledge of the HIM professionals support clinical research and provide information for medical and health care statistics. But this area of health care is relatively new.

In 1913, the American College of Surgeons was founded with the goal of enhancing the quality of surgery performed through better surgical training. To standardize the training performed, quality health records were deemed an essential factor. In the 1920s, Royal Columbian Hospital had difficulty with case history reports and medical record keeping to the extent that in 1922, it was removed from the list of standardized hospitals. By 1931 RCH, along with ten other BC hospitals, regained “approval” by the American College of Surgeons, based on what the College described as “competent medical staff keeping accurate and complete records of all cases”. However, because of a shortage of both funds and trained staff to organize and maintain medical records, RCH again lost its “approved” status.

Probably as a direct result of the inability to obtain and keep accreditation, RCH instituted a Medical Records department in 1949 with the appointment of Mrs. Ruth Melby as Chief Medical Record Librarian.

During the following year, she established a cross index based on the standard classification of disease and operations, as well as numbering and filing medical records by the unit system. The next year, the hospital purchased a dictating-transcribing machine for the use of medical staff and 75% of admissions had type-written histories. Mrs. Melby could now state in the annual report, “with the accumulation of two years of cross indexing of diseases and operations, statistics are now available for the first time for any physicians who wish to carry out medical research projects.”

In 1954, RCH was approved for training by the Canadian Association for Medical Record Librarians and the school, the 7th in Canada, opened September 26, 1954. Four students began classes the following year after arrangements had been made for them to receive their training in anatomy and physiology with the student nurses. The Vancouver Sun of May 16, 1956 published the following article describing the school and the careers it made possible.

“UNIQUE SCHOOL IN ROYAL CITY

Hospital authorities aren’t just being nosey when they ask you all those questions. The fact that you’re allergic to artichokes might help someone engaged on an important research project. First of its kind in BC, a school for medical record librarians at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster trains people to make use of all the information a hospital collects.

After a 52-week course, graduates are equipped to make quantitative analyses of medical records, to classify, code and index diseases and operations, to prepare statistical, medical, insurance and Blue Cross reports and to do research for doctors and medical associations.

In session now, with the first graduation ceremonies scheduled for August, the school opens up new job opportunities for those who qualify as trained specialists in the profession of medical record science. There is a big demand for medical record librarians in hospitals throughout Canada and the US, with the result that posts are plentiful and starting salaries, approximately $250 a month. Based on requirements of the board of registration of the Canadian Association of Medical Record Librarians, the course of training is divided into two parts, Junior and Senior, with one week’s vacation at Christmas. During the first three months most of the student’s time is spent in practical training. Classes commence in September and January and hours are from 9 to 4 weekdays and 9 to 12 on Saturdays. Lectures are given by members of the hospital’s medical record department staff and School of Nursing instructors. Guest lectures also are given by members of medical record departments of other hospitals in the greater Vancouver area.

On successful completion of the course, graduates receive a diploma and pin and become eligible to write Canadian registration examinations. When they have passed these exams, they are privileged to write RRL(Registered Record Librarian) after their name.”

A Medical Record Librarian from the Regina General Hospital who had graduated from the RCH school, described her career in glowing terms, “No two days are ever the same”, she said. Her daily work included analyzing medical records, classification, coding and indexing diseases and operations, statistical and medical reports and research work for medical associations and doctors. “One of the advantages of being a medical record librarian is that you know you are serving others – patient, doctor and hospital.”

OMG! Did I Really Look Like That?

Old scrapbooks and photo albums are a great way to learn about the past. If they’re fully captioned and labelled, they can be a great source of information, and if they’re not labelled at all, well, they can still be fun. A large photo album came our way recently with lots of unlabelled photos of past events designed to raise funds and public awareness at Royal Columbian Hospital in the mid-to-late 1980s and ’90s.

Many are pretty self-evident, but some are a little puzzling. We’re hoping that some people will recognize themselves or others in the following, or at least be able to tell us more about the event at which they were taken. Even if that doesn’t happen, they provide a great glimpse at the kind of events that were happening about 25 years ago.

RCH Fundraising Thermometer Being Installed on Woodward’s Roof 1988

This “thermometer” was installed on the roof of the Woodward’s store at 6th & 6th in uptown New Westminster in 1988 to keep track of funds raised for Royal Columbian Hospital. The slogan was “Catch Our Fever: It’s Your Turn to Care” and the top of the thermometer showed $6.0 million – did they reach it?

1989 Get-Away Van

This Get-Away Van was the Grand Prize in a fundraising project in 1989. Not sure why this man is having his blood pressure taken – did he just win the prize?

Raymond Burr as Key-Note Speaker 1988

There was great excitement when the famous New Westminster-born actor, Raymond Burr, visited RCH in May, 1988. Here he is shaking hands with then-Mayor Tom Baker, while Norm Grohman looks on. Burr has just finished his key-note speech.

Raymond Burr Chatting With Staff

Raymond Burr obviously enjoying a friendly chat with RCH staff in the cafeteria.

CKNW Orphans Fund Presentation

Jim Fair, President and CEO of RCH, explains a piece of equipment to Judge Tom Fisher in an undated CKNW Orphans Fund presentation – probably 1988 or 89.

The following 5 photos were all taken at the Surgery Open House Day December 01, 1991 at which almost every department had a table or booth, or was open to the public. It was obviously very successful judging by the crowds in other photos in the album. Recognize anyone?

The sign on the wall may say “It doesn’t have to hurt”, but the young man in the red sweater doesn’t look very convinced.

Auxiliary volunteers always at the centre of the action!

Certainly a happy group!

Even with all those balloons, some of that equipment looks pretty scary.

She looks like a natural, so did she eventually become a surgeon?

If you know any of these people or attended these events and can add details, please share your comments.

Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary

Among the many thousands of events the Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary has held in support of RCH over the last 110 years, one of the most poignant was a tea to honour the student nurses when they received their caps. The following article appeared in The British Columbian in the early1950s, describing that year’s ceremony.

HOSPITAL AUXILIARY FETES STUDENTS AT ‘CAPPING’ TEA

LIGHT OF MERCY was lit anew at Royal Columbian Hospital Friday night as 16 preliminary nursing students attended a “capping ceremony” and were admitted to membership in the student nurses’ association. The ceremony is symbolized by the lighting of a nurse’s candle by a senior nurse as the student receives her cap. Pictured from left are Miss Irene Templeton, Matsqui; Miss Phyllis Brown, chief instructress; Miss Elizabeth Clark, superintendent of nurses; Miss Molly Pickton, New Westminster. Miss Pickton has just been capped.
Undated article in 1949 The British Columbian

A delightful mid-week social event was the “capping” tea held this afternoon by the Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary to honour the student nurses who will receive their caps tomorrow evening at the hospital capping ceremony.

Mrs. Wiliam Stewart, 520 Third Street, gave the use of her home for the party. The hostess was assisted in welcoming the 39 nurses by Mrs. W.R. Brewster, auxiliary president, and Mrs. G.N. Matthews who were in charge of the tea arrangements.

Spring flowers adorned the living room, and the lace covered tea table was centered with a low plaque of daffodils and yellow mimosa. Tall tapers burned in silver candelabra. Miss Helen McGillivray was in charge of the tea table. Presiding at the urns for the first hour were Miss Eleanor Graham and Mrs. J. Gartside. Their places were taken by Mrs. C.D. Peele and Mrs. C.R. McMillan.

Assisting to serve were Mrs. R. McDowell, Mrs. Douglas Quinn, Mrs. H.C. Lennerton, Mrs. Molly Nixon, Mrs. T.R. Selkirk, Mrs. M. Lane, Mrs. J. Wilson, Mrs. S. Wilder, Mrs. G.H. Worsley, Mrs. W. Phillips, Mrs. C.E. Rook and Mrs. H McCauseland.

Mrs. Douglas Phipps was in charge of the capping register, and the drawing for the registration prize. Tea cups were read and there was also fortune telling by palm reading and cards.

Other events were usually intended to raise funds which would then be used to purchase equipment for the hospital. The following photos described some of the preparations for the 1950 Country Fair. That year, the fair realized $5,000 which the Auxiliary used to completely renovate the RCH children’s ward.

FLYING PAINT BRUSHES – There are gay touches on the novelties being readied for the Country Fair by Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary members pictured. Mrs. William Gifford is winding raffia around the neck of a glass jug and Mrs. L.F.C. Kirby is studying a glass design watched by Mrs. U.G. Gilroy. Standing is Mrs. Mel Lane who has designed the patterns used. The group was working, when the picture was taken, at the home of Mrs. Mack Flett, who is painting a glass. The fair takes place at the city market on the night of Nov. 6, commencing at 7 p.m.
The British Columbian Oct 26, 1950

DOLLS AT COUNTRY FAIR – Mrs. H.G.F. Warner, Mrs. H.R. McCausland, and Mrs. J.E. Hannah have worked busily at the McCausland home putting the finishing touches to the dozens of dolls and cuddly animals that will stock their booth at the Country Fair tonight at the city market. About five kinds of dolls are included and there is also a dog and an amusing zebra. The Eva-Jean doll is the wide-eyed blond; Topsy Turvey next to her will delight any moppet. (Note: this doll depicted a white child one way, and a black child when inverted).

Held on November 6, 1950 this 7th annual fair featured a booth with hand-made Christmas decorations. The members made miniature moulds of tiny animals, trees, houses, churches, bells, Santas, choir boys, angels and other figures associated with Christmas. After the moulds came the work of casting the figures, drying and painting them. There were also booths featuring home cooking, knitting, dolls, novelties, and toys. Raffle prizes included a live turkey donated by the Queen’s Park Meat Market, a beautiful doll’s house, a “radio phonograph”, a silver tea service and tray, a Warren K Cook suit and $100 worth of canned goods from Westminster Canners Ltd.

Isolated But Not Alone

The process of isolating patients with communicable diseases has varied widely over the years at Royal Columbian Hospital. In 1862 even before the original Royal Columbian Hospital was finished, the Board of Managers had to build a small separate building to house a couple of smallpox patients. There were, at different times, a number of separate isolation hospitals in different parts of the city such as Poplar Island and the area at 8th Street and 8th Avenue near the Douglas Road cemetery. They dealt primarily with smallpox, but patients with any communicable disease could have been cared for there.

In 1908 three isolation cottages were added to the 1889 hospital building for patients with infectious diseases, including scarlet fever and tuberculosis. The 1912 hospital has an isolation ward as part of the main hospital rather than having a separate building for that purpose. However, by 1940 there was no isolation ward at all at RCH and patients had to be sent to Vancouver due to the lack of facilities in New Westminster. Ald. W. Cook lobbied in November 1940 for the Dominion government to contribute toward an isolation ward at least for the army cases in the military wing.

In 1943, the scarlet fever isolation building was renovated and brought back into service. The interior of the building was redecorated, the electric wiring system overhauled, the exterior painted and extra fire escapes added. By the 1960s, there was an isolation ward on the ground floor toward the rear of the old 1912 section of the hospital.

In 1964 an 18-year old young man suffering an infectious disease was admitted to that isolation ward. Thinking back to that time, he now has only vague impressions of the admission process, or the ward outside his room. During the first 24 hours, he was too ill to pay much attention to what was happening, but as he began to feel better, he wondered what was happening outside his room in the general ward. He could hear muffled voices, a child crying, the rattle of equipment, but not much else. Finally the day came that the nurses told him that he had visitors. Some school chums had come to see him, but visiting a patient in isolation wasn’t like seeing any other patient. The patient sat in his room in front of the open window, while his friends or family sat or stood outside on the other side of a wire fence. This way they could see and hear each other without any possibility of transmission of the disease. The system worked well during the summer months, but when it was rainy or cold and snowy it had some pretty obvious problems.

Visiting patients in the isolation ward of Royal Columbian hospital can be an uncomfortable ordeal. To prevent contact with patients with infectious or contagious diseases, visitors are kept outside the building and away from the windows by a wire fence. Among new facilities included in current plans for expansion of the hospital is a new isolation ward with an indoor visiting room. Source: The Columbian Oct 29, 1964

Today, technology makes everything different. Patients in isolation now can still be in constant touch with the outside world via TV, internet, email, etc. – things we all take for granted. But back in 1964, it was an exciting step in his recovery when our 18-year-old patient was told he could have his transistor radio brought in as long as it was in a plastic case that could be properly cleaned, and not a leather case. The disposable earphones provided by the hospital weren’t as good as his own, but now he could listen to the hit parade, his favourite programs, and the news and begin to feel once more part of the world outside the hospital walls. Anything else (books, paper, pens etc.) that was brought in for him had to be destroyed when he was discharged so that there was no chance of “taking the disease out” with him when he returned home.

Today there are isolation beds right in the middle of intensive care wards – the barrier now being differences in air pressure rather than solid walls and wire fences, but the concept remains the same. Give the best care possible to the ill patient, while protecting the general population from whatever has caused the disease.

Modular Building makes debut at Royal Columbian Hospital

New two-storey medical wing of Royal Columbian hospital hides the ancient original building from view of passersby on East Columbia street. The new building was erected in a nine-month crash program to replace a structure dating back to 1912 and now condemned as a fire hazard. Entrance is at far right. Photo from The Columbian Oct 6, 1971

From The Columbian newspaper, Oct 6, 1971

The long-awaited modernization program of Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster takes its first tangible step tomorrow with the official opening of a new building for medical patients, constructed in a crash program from factory-built modular components.

The Modular Building, as it is named by hospital authorities, will accommodate 153 adult patients and 21 children for a total of 174.

The accommodation is to replace an ancient structure first built in 1912 and now condemned for hospital use by fire officials. A major portion of the 1912 building is to be demolished and eventually equipped for Royal Columbian’s role as the principal referral hospital of the lower Fraser Valley.

The modular building, though considered temporary, and designed to be dismantled and moved to some other community in the future, is nevertheless completely and well-finished and equipped. It has a full basement, with storage, heating, garbage and laundry-handling facilities, and two nursing floors. It is connected to the permanent buildings by two covered walkways, for comfortable movement of patients, staff and meals. It has some private rooms, but the majority of patients will be housed in nine to 12-bed wards, with the usual movable drapes to give privacy to each bed when required.

Comfort of the patients is assured by new and up-to-date beds and other furnishings. Each bed has its own lamp, hooded to prevent glare in the eyes of other patients. Each has a nurse call switch, which lights an indictor at the nursing station and over the bed. All have piped oxygen outlets, and a plug-in for cable television.

Construction started on Jan. 20 this year, after many other plans for expanding and updating the hospital had been made and turned down by regional and Victoria authorities because of cost. The modular unit system was finally chosen and approved because of speedy construction and the possibility of dismantling and moving the building at some future time. Prime contractors, Van Construction of Burnaby, built the 80 modules in the firm’s own shops, trucked them to the site, and fitted them into a steel framework erected on the basement foundation.

The majority of the modules are 10 ½ by 40 feet, and had electric wiring and piping systems installed and ready for hookup at the plant. On-site jobs included exterior cladding, roofing, flooring, installation of fixtures and trim, and decorating.

Cost came to approximately $28 per square foot for a total of $2,395,000, only slightly higher than a comparable wood frame or cement block building, and considered well worth the extra amount for the gains in time and portability.

The building is designed to accommodate patients suffering an illness, rather than those hospitalized by injuries or for surgery, who require more of the sophisticated electronic equipment for their care. The modular unit has no operating room, x-ray or cardiovascular equipment. Patients requiring treatment in thee departments will be taken to the main building through the connecting corridor.

But every facility to help provide the best nursing care has been included. Nursing stations are large, with an attached “medi-prep” room with stainless steel fixtures. They are fitted with intercom to all wards, call system and convenient storage for patients’ records. Each floor has its own food service center, with an ice-making machine, refrigerator and other facilities for serving between-meal snacks. Each floor has day rooms for “up” patients to lounge and receive visitors.

The children’s ward is at one end of the second floor to eliminate through traffic. Isolation for patients with communicable diseases is in the same location on the first floor, but has an entrance from outside for visitors, locked for control.

From related article:
The present remodelling was done in order to relocate offices, medical records, the cafeteria and other service departments housed until now in the portion to be demolished. Virtually untouched in the present program is the central building constructed in 1950, containing 235 patient beds, the operating theatres, and the trauma unit added recently.

Total patient capacity in the 1912 and 1950 wings of the hospital was 445, until remodelling forced removal of 53 beds temporarily. When the modular unit replaces the 1912 wing, capacity will be stabilized at 409. Planners speak of the possibility of topping-off Royal Columbian with a capacity of 700 in the future.

First Intensive Care Unit at Royal Columbian Hospital

A brand new concept in medical treatment began at RCH in February of 1965 – intensive care. It’s hard to think of a hospital without an ICU today, but it was a very innovative concept in the mid-sixties. The 5-bed ward, staffed by 2 nurses, with a central ‘command’ post and specialized equipment, was full even before its official opening.

The following article and photograph appeared in The Columbian February 3, 1965.

‘Command Post’ in Hospital Seen as New Life-Saver
by Sydney Orpwood, Columbian Staff Reporter

The critically ill at Royal Columbian hospital are now being speeded on their way to recovery by a new program of intensive nursing. It started this week when a five-bed ward, renovated and equipped for special care, was put into use.

Lives of many patients, which would have been lost a decade ago, can now be saved through the use of special facilities and skills assembled in the new ward. And others who would formerly spend long weary weeks recovering from illness or injury can now be returned to their homes and families much sooner.

The new ward was created through the determination and ingenuity of the medical, nursing and administrative staff at Royal Columbian. “It’s not perfect,” they are quick to say. But each gives the others credit for finding space for the new unit in the crowded conditions at the hospital; for solving the difficult engineering problems in the physical renovations; for visualizing the need and scope of the specialized care, and for providing the human skill and compassion which make it work.

Physically, they started with a six-bed ward in the 1950 wing of the hospital, and re-planned the floor space for five beds. New oxygen and vacuum pipes were snaked through the walls of the building, with outlets at the head of each bed space. A dozen new electrical plug-ins were installed. Garment closets were ripped out, and storage cupboards took their place, to hold a handy supply of all the articles normally needed in a sick room. A command post was added, with desks, telephone, chart space, and one important extra item – an alarm button to summon aid in an emergency.

Visitors from other hospitals and a reporter-photographer team from The Columbian were ushered for a preview of the new ward Tuesday, and found it already in full use. All beds were occupied, and two patients had already made rapid recovery from an illness and an operation through the intense care, and were ready to be moved to standard wards.

Special equipment covered much of the floor space, between the beds and under them. An apparatus manufacturer was demonstrating a continuous cardiac monitor, which the hospital will buy within a week or two.

Getting intense nursing care in a new ward at Royal Columbian hospital is Ian MacFarlene, recovering well from a heart operation. Nurse Beverley Botter is one of six who rotate, two at a time, in the five-bed ward. Equipment is concentrated here, and more is being ordered.
From The Columbian Feb 3, 1965

Recent publicity over intense care wards in U.S. hospitals describes a central monitoring device which can be switched by the nurse from one patient to another. “We don’t care for this type,” a Royal Columbian staffer said. “We prefer individual units. This is the concept we have of intense care – that each patient should be watched every minute of the day and night. We intend, as the need grows, and the money is available, to have more than one individual monitor.”

The ward is staffed by two graduate nurses at all times. Supplies are at hand; they are in communication with the central chart room by telephone; they have their own washroom. Everything has been arranged so there is no need for them to leave their patients at any time. Nurses who will staff the ward volunteered for the work, and were given courses on the special care and the new equipment they will use. Others will be trained, so their duty may rotate.

Doctors who planned four years to see the ward come into existence praise them. “The dedication and skill of these girls is outstanding,” one said Tuesday. “They are the principal reason we are able to take better care of our patients – save more lives, and send them home sooner.”

The Gardener was the Butcher & The Floor-Cleaner Made the Ice Cream

DIETICIAN RECALLS SIMPLER RCH DAYS

from New Westminster Now, 28 July 1987 p. 23

Dietician Helen Rhodes in 1987

Compared with the sophisticated food preparation system in place today, the Royal Columbian Hospital kitchen of the 1920s was pretty primitive.

Helen Rhodes had her work cut out, serving not only as dietician but also as hospital housekeeper – she was responsible for ensuring the window cleaners kept the 1000 windows clean. “I was alone,” said Helen, now 90, in a recent interview, “in the dietary department at the Royal Columbian, to which the housekeeping had been added. When I left in 1945 I had a secretary, two assistant dieticians and a housekeeper. We were also affiliated with the VGH in training intern dieticians. Each came to us for a month. The dieticians visited patients regularly to help them with their choice of food.

“In addition, we were the first in the district to have selective menus for the private (paying) patients. One of my first visits to a liquor store was when I went to buy wine for a French private patient. Many patients were on special diets and there have been as many changes in these as in other forms of treatment.”

In the early twenties the kitchen was very primitive: coal stoves and no power equipment. Kitchen staff worked a 64-hour week and had to report for duty at 6 a.m. No sleeping in for them. They had two weeks holiday a year, and if they had Christmas afternoons off, they worked New Year’s Day. There were no pensions, there was no trained staff, and no money for chefs. If the cook left, then perhaps a window washer or local housewife got the job.

Meat came in whole carcasses and was cut up by the gardener, regardless of his ability in this field. The Sunday ice cream was ground out by the floor-cleaner, with a hand machine.

“I had a room in the nurses’ residence. My first assistant was appointed in 1930. She was Betty Whiteside, who had been May Queen, and was Judge Whiteside’s daughter.”

Conditions began to improve during the 1930s – except that during the war years there were staff problems and shortages. “We had to make do with untrained people, some of whom, if they didn’t feel like coming to work, just stayed in bed.

“The one important aspect that stands out in my 25 years at RCH is that although the patients may not have known much about their illness or their treatment, they did know about food. So that although we were preparing institutional food, we always did the best we could with what was available.”

‘Cat’ Scanner Gives Doctors A Peek Into Living Brain

When Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, he opened a new and miraculous world in which scientists could “see” inside a living body.

Today, most medical imaging departments include radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, photo acoustic imaging, ultrasound, echocardiography, breast thermography, computed tomography, and bone densitometry .

But in 1980, a major first was about to arrive at Royal Columbian Hospital – a brand new brain scanner. An article in the Vancouver Sun of February 16, 1980 described the scanner, what it could do, and why it had been ordered in spite of the hospital not having the money to pay for it.

Dr. Ladislav Antonik, Medical Director of RCH, said, “It’s a revolution in medical science. The scanner lets us see inside the body in a way that was impossible before…What it will mean to patients and doctors is obvious. The brain is not given to exploratory surgery, but nothing is hidden from the scanner and surgeons now won’t need to probe in the dark.”

RCH had been promised a brain scanner, but it wasn’t going to be a G.E. 8800 series, which Dr. Antonik declared was the finest money could buy. The provincial government was only prepared to come up with enough money to buy an Ohio Nuclear scanner similar to those installed in some hospitals in interior B.C – about a third of the price. But New Westminster’s hospital at that time handled 20% of all provincial traffic victims – more than any other hospital in BC. The Ohio Nuclear model took two minutes to scan a brain section, while the GE machine did it in 4.8 seconds. It was obvious that the more expensive machine was the one needed, but they were about $172,000 short and the scanner was due in a month. They had some major fundraising to do!

To pay for the scanner, the hospital received about 1,800 individual donations totalling about $176,000 to add to the provincial government’s $165,000 contribution and the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District’s $55,000. The hospital district also donated $90,000 toward the cost of the lead-lined room that housed the scanner.

On June 2, 1980, the Vancouver Sun published an article entitled, “Stuffing Ballot Box Helps Buy Scanner”. It described how one resident had borrowed a municipal ballot box and taken it to the BC Penitentiary during its open house to collect donations. “She raised $1,500 in three days,” New Westminster Mayor Muni Evers told the gathering of more than 120 people at the long-awaited official unveiling of RCH’s new computerized brain scanner. “That’s the most legitimate way of stuffing the ballot box.”

The doctors and technicians were eager to put the scanner into operation. The article quoted Dr. Andrew Tan, looking at a series of x-ray negatives taken of patient’s brain. “These will save us a lot of unnecessary surgery,” he said, referring to the prints from the brain scanner. Dr. Tan, who would assist Dr. Ken Kaan in operating the brain scanner, was examining the case of a young patient who had been involved in a car accident. Comatose and showing no movement on the left side, the patient would have had to undergo a cerebral arteriogram for doctors without access to a brain scanner to determine if a blood clot had formed, Dr. Tan said. That would have meant an hour delay in treatment and there would not be the kind of accuracy in locating a clot as there is with a brain scanner, he added. “As you can see by that white area,” he said, pointing to the scanner’s picture, “a large blood clot is pressing against his brain, which explains why he is comatose.”

X-ray technologist Walter Adamus
taking scan of Royal Columbian Hospital patient.
The Columbian August 7, 1980

In a further article on August 7th of that year, The Columbian reported that since its installation in June, the RCH scanner had done 451 examinations and already there was a waiting list. Today, the medical imaging department at RCH performs 23,000 CT scans a year.

In 2010, RCH received a new 256-slice CT Scanner, requiring only a fraction of the radiation dose required by the previous generation of scanners. A scan from head to toe can be acquired in about 10 seconds. This speed can be extremely important for time-critical exams for small children, trauma and areas of the body that move, such as the beating heart. The scanner produces 256 slices of information during each rotation, which takes 0.27 seconds, a far cry from the 4.8 seconds to produce a single slice in 1980.