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The Ottawa Hospital has closed a temporary surge space at its general campus that’s been in use for more than two years, to the relief of at least one patient.
The garage — it’s unofficial name — was the hospital’s old ambulance bay, repurposed into a 20-bed space in 2023 and renovated in January 2024.
The surge space was temporarily used to manage high patient volumes, but “did not meet our expectations for patient experience,” the hospital said in a statement explaining the closure.
The overflow area closed May 1 and won’t reopen, the hospital said.
“Historically, surge spaces have closed during the summer. We’re now evaluating how the space can be used moving forward,” it said.
Closing the area “was part of a broader review of staffing,” the hospital said, with patients, physicians, nurses and other staff reassigned to other areas of the hospital.
Louise Pivato was a patient at “the garage” at The Ottawa Hospital general campus five times, calling it a terrible environment. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
“While patients received high-quality care, the physical environment of the surge space did not meet our expectations for patient experience,” the hospital said.
Louise Pivato is pleased the overflow area has closed.
She estimated she stayed in the garage about five times over the course of three months while receiving treatment for cancer.
Conditions in the garage were “inhumane,” she said.
“It was very uncomfortable,” she added. “You feel like you’re almost forgotten.”
She continued: “I mean, I guess they tried their best…. you did get good care, just the environment was terrible.”
The hospital said the Offload Medicine Transition Unit (OMTU) at the Civic campus, which has been operating for nearly five and a half years, was also considered temporary and is still running.
That unit has 40 beds.
Hospital changing triage system
The hospital is also changing how it assigns patients at its two emergency departments.
Patients will now be triaged into one of four zones: resuscitation, green, yellow or blue based on their medical needs, the hospital said.
For patients, that means that once triaged they will be sent to a specific area of the emergency department.
The hospital hopes these changes will help to reduce wait times.