Download a pdf of the June 2023 Quarterly Project Update.

SUPPORT CARE CLOSER TO HOME

$2 million Newcrest donation kicks off REM Lee Foundation’s ‘Closer to Home’ campaign

A huge announcement took place in Terrace this month! On June 3, the Dr. R.E.M Lee Hospital Foundation in Terrace kicked off a major fundraising campaign with the announcement of a $2 million donation (the largest gift in the Foundation’s history!) from Newcrest Mining.

The campaign, titled ‘Closer to Home’, is focused on bringing a higher level of care to mothers and newborns in Northwest BC in the form of a Tier 3 level Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and special care nursery at the new Mills Memorial Hospital (MMH). Currently, MMH's level of neonatal and maternal services is Tier 2 and no facility in Northwest BC offers Tier 3 level services.

"Although not originally a part of the MMH rebuild, this is a once-in-a­generation opportunity" said Foundation Chair Ron Bartlett, a member of the Kitsumkalum nation.

Currently mothers and infants that need emergent care, must experience often stressful and weather-dependent medical evacuation to either Prince George (Tier 4) or Vancouver (Tier 6.) Having care closer to home means mothers and babies will be surrounded by people they need and their families less burdened by the financial and emotional costs of travel and long-term stays in unfamiliar settings.

Dr. Anita Adlam, a pediatrician responsible for acute pediatric care at MMH, said, "If newborns need anything more than rooming in with their mum, we just don't have the capacity to look after them, and we often end up sending patients out to other facilities.”

Big thanks to Newcrest Mining for being the first to contribute to this important project!

Go to remleehospitalfoundation.org or call the Foundation at 250-641-5526 for more info or to donate.

WHERE WE’RE AT

We are celebrating two years of construction!

Only a couple years ago the MMH construction site was an empty lot.

In May 2021, the MMH Construction Site had just been cleared of trees.

In May 2023, the exterior shell of the hospital is mainly complete and most of the work is happening inside the building

Recent construction milestones

• Canopies for the new hospital’s main entrance and emergency entrance on Tetrault Street are in place.
• Inside the new facility, more than 90% of the walls are framed, 65% are drywalled and 60% are taped.
• Millwork has begun.
• Flooring is complete in four departments.
• New Seven Sisters’ building envelope was completed in May 2023 and framing and drywalling has begun inside.

WHERE WE’RE GOING

Reducing environmental impact with LEED Gold

Despite the new hospital being more than double the size of the current building, it will still emit significantly less greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases produced per square foot in the new hospital will be at least 70% less than the current facility. And the total reduction in greenhouse gases, from the current facility to the new one, will be at least 40%.

Our aim is for the new Mills Memorial Hospital and Seven Sisters buildings to be high performance, environmentally responsible buildings that operate efficiently and provide a comfortable indoor environment for the occupants, promoting patient, visitor and staff wellness.

As part of this goal, the new Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project is working towards, and well on its way, to achieving LEED gold status, the second highest LEED designation possible.

LEED stands for ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ and is the most common and widely used green building certification in the world. LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building project was designed and built, or operated, to achieve high performance in six areas of human and environmental health:

• location & transportation
• sustainable site development
• water savings
• energy efficiency
• materials selection
• indoor environmental quality

From the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) website, these six areas are:

“LEED helps owners and developers create high-performing, resilient buildings that reduce carbon emissions, save water, conserve energy and reduce waste. LEED also improves people’s quality of life by delivering the optimal conditions for health, comfort and productivity – such as better quality air and natural light,” according to CAGBC.

LEED requirements have advised many choices in the design of the new hospital and Seven Sisters – for example, lighting, waste management, construction materials, space allocation, number of exits and entrances and bike and electric vehicle stations, and more.

A facility’s power sources and systems are an especially major consideration in LEED. Northern Health analyzed and reviewed various alternatives for electrical and mechanical systems in the new hospital and Seven Sisters. Two major focuses included maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing ongoing costs throughout the lifecycle of the facilities.

The majority of the energy savings in the new Mills Memorial Hospital will come from recycling heat thanks to the new facility’s mechanical systems. Both the new facilities will have highly efficient, low-temperature heating systems. Heating will be primarily based on recovered heat from building exhaust, or simultaneously rejected cooling load. In peak winter conditions, the system will be supplemented with high-efficiency, condensing, gas-fired boilers.

The new facilities will also have a highly efficient cooling system. The system will use magnetic bearing chillers, the most efficient chillers on the market. These are frictionless compressor machines that do not require lubrication (oil); machines that require lubrication tend to degrade more quickly.

LEARN MORE

Go to letstalk.northernhealth.ca/mmh

Let’s Talk MMH is our one-stop shop for everything related to the Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project. The site has regular project updates, a link to the construction camera and much more. It’s also where you can provide feedback and ask questions about the project.

Check out the construction cameras

Check out what the construction site looks like in real time on our two construction cameras. One camera is aimed at the new Mills Memorial Hospital and the other shows the new Seven Sisters site. The link to the cameras is on Let’s Talk MMH. You can download photos, videos an do all kinds of other cool stuff.

Email us at letstalkMMH@northernhealth.ca

Send us an email if you’ve got questions or feedback, or if want to receive email updates like this.