Pubdate:April 17, 2008
By Erika Engel
A million-dollar donation from the Teresa Cascioli Charitable Foundation will
allow St. Joseph's Healthcare to develop a new state-of-the-art operating
room and nursing station named for her.
Both are part of a $110-million plan to improve surgical
facilities at the hospital.
"This is such a great hospital," Cascioli, the former CEO
of Hamilton's Lakeport Brewing, told The Spectator at yesterday's announcement.
"It's been here forever. I'm really impressed with the staff
and the initiative, and it's Catholic, and I'm Catholic."
Rob Donelson, president and CEO of the St. Joseph's foundation,
said he hoped Cascioli's gift would be a catalyst for
other gifts in the community. "This is a gift of
historic proportions," he said. "(It) is an immense statement by
Teresa to say the St. Joe's is an organization worth
investing in."
Cascioli also wanted to provide the community with an opportunity
to give to the hospital. At the donation announcement, she
revealed her idea for a fundraising project called the St.
Joe's Baby Face Photo Wall.
Cascioli, who was born at St. Joseph's in 1961, encouraged
others who were born there to make a donation and
submit their baby photo for a wall display at the
hospital.
She and the hospital hope to raise another $1 million
from the photo wall by Cascioli's 50th birthday in 2011,
Donelson said.
"I know that Hamilton won't let me down," Cascioli said.
The hospital's surgical centre project includes plans to build 18
operating rooms and six new nursing stations.
There are currently 12 operating rooms at St. Joseph's to
accommodate nearly 16,000 surgeries a year.
The rooms were built in the 1960s. Only three are
large enough to hold the equipment needed to perform surgery
with advanced scopes -- known as minimally invasive or laparoscopic
surgery.
A typical operating room at St. Joseph's now has an
area of 374 square feet. The industry standard is 550
to 600 square feet, according to Karen Langstaff, director of
facilities planning and redevelopment at St. Joseph's.
The new rooms will be 600 square feet and will
be equipped with wall- or ceiling-mounted monitors, in-room imaging equipment,
a wireless communication system, scopes for minimally invasive surgery and
robotic arm attachments for the surgical tables.
Dr. Mona Misra, surgeon and vice-president of medical staff at
St. Joseph's, performs laparoscopic surgery. But with eight surgical staff,
scopes, monitors, tables and beds all crowded into one room,
the surgeries are difficult.
"Seeing them develop new operating rooms is fantastic for us,"
she said. "We know that they are moving forward in
the direction that we all want to move towards."
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